Today marks the anniversary of the 1969 arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Zionist criminal, Denis Michael Rohan, with apparent complicity by the Israeli occupation authorities. This heinous crime will be a testament to the Israeli Zionist extremist groups’ terrorism and ominous and never-ending attacks against the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque represented in the daily incursions, desperate attempts to divide it spatially and temporally, and killing, abducting, and deporting Palestinians from it.
Fifty-three years have passed since the crime of burning the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, and despite the Israeli occupation’s escalating crimes against it and its Palestinian defenders, the Palestinians have always been steadfast and vigilant against the Israeli occupation’s anticipated attacks until liberation.
On this ill-fated anniversary, Hamas states the following:
First: May Allah have mercy on the souls of the Palestinians martyred in defense of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and we salute the Palestinian people, particularly the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, for standing steadfast and defending the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We also hail Palestinian residents of the 1948 occupied Palestinian territories, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the diaspora.
Second: The occupied city of Jerusalem, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is the core of the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation deliberate attacks. We reiterate that we will keep defending it with all means possible, including comprehensive resistance, until liberation and return.
Third: The Israeli occupation has no sovereignty over an inch of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and its vicinity, and it has been and will always be a Muslim place of worship. In addition, the Israeli occupation’s attempts to Judaize, change the Islamic features of, and divide it spatially and temporally will all be in vain.
Fourth: The crime of burning the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Israeli occupation and Zionist aggressors’ ongoing crimes against our land, our people, and our holy sites will not break the Palestinian people’s determination to stand against the Israeli occupation crimes, but rather would ignite the flame of resistance and make them stubbornly cling to their legitimate rights until liberation and return.
Fifth: We call on our Arab and Islamic nations, along with the free peoples of the world, who rushed to support the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque after the arson attack on it in 1969, to shoulder their responsibility in taking urgent and practical action to defend and protect it from the threats of Judaization and the obliteration of its historical features. We also call on the Arab states that normalized ties with the Israeli occupation to step back and stick to the standards of rejecting the Israeli occupation of Palestine and its accelerating offensives against Palestinians.
Sixth: We call on the Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem, the occupied 1948 Palestinian territories, and the occupied West Bank to continue defending the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, confronting the extremist Israelis who try to storm and desecrate it, and thwarting their schemes to divide it. We also call on the Palestinian people all over the globe, the Arab and Islamic nations, and the free peoples of the world to throw their support behind the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem and reinforce their steadfastness.
HAMAS
Aug 21, 2022
