Israeli Police Attack Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli police preventing Muslim religious leaders and worshipers access to the Dome of the Rock. (Wafa)
Israeli police preventing Muslim religious leaders and worshipers access to the Dome of the Rock. (Wafa)
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Israeli Police Attack Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque

Israeli police preventing Muslim religious leaders and worshipers access to the Dome of the Rock. (Wafa)
Israeli police preventing Muslim religious leaders and worshipers access to the Dome of the Rock. (Wafa)

Palestinian authorities closed Monday the Dome of the Rock after an Israeli policeman attempted to force his way into the site.

Israeli provocations continued until Palestinians clashed with occupation forces, which also physically assaulted Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani, Imam of Aqsa Mosque, and besieged the Dome of the Rock mosque.
Tensions continued until the evening when the occupation forces withdrew.

The standoff began shortly after Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel toured the Mosque’s squares accompanied by scores of Jewish settlers guarded by a large force of heavily armed police.

Two Israeli officers then came to the Dome of the Rock for the daily search. One of them was wearing a Jewish Kippah and the guards asked him to take it off before entering the mosque, which he refused and attempted to force his way into the place, prompting the guards to close all the doors.

Head of the public relations office at the Islamic Endowment Department, Firas al-Dibs, indicated that, within their jurisdiction, Aqsa’s guards closed the doors of the mosque. He added that dozens of Israeli police forces besieged the mosque and prevented worshipers, imams, sheikhs, and employees of the Department from entering.

As a result, hundreds of worshipers came to al-Aqsa Mosque and held Dhuhr and Asr prayer in the courtyard. The worshipers then protested closing the mosque and a number of imams and elders came to the place including Imam of Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani. The soldiers prevented them by force and special forces assaulted Sheikh Kiswani.

Tension grew and some worshipers clashed with the police. Later, in the afternoon, police ended their siege and withdrew from the Mosque.

Palestinian Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Yousef Adaibis, condemned the violation of the sanctity of al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, its squares and its facilities, by the Israeli occupation police.

He described the incident as an “assault on the feelings of Muslims and their holy sites.”

“These are immoral practices that create more religious incitement inside and outside of Jerusalem,” he said. He also accused Israel of working toward “dividing al-Aqsa Mosque in time and space” between Muslims and Jews.

The Minister called on the international community to restrain Israeli occupation from continuing with such violations and attacks.

The Palestinian Unity Government issued a statement condemning the brutal attack on Sheikh Kiswani and the siege of the Mosque by the occupying forces. It added that this attack falls within “the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation government against Jerusalem and holy sites.”

Government Spokesman, Yousef al-Mahmoud, stressed that the government urges Arab, Islamic, and the governments of the world to take serious action in all international forums and work to end Israeli occupation’s attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque and Islamic and Christian holy sites.



Israel Will Keep Gaza Buffer Zone, Minister Says, as Ceasefire Efforts Stall 

15 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike seen from Jabalia camp. (dpa) 
15 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike seen from Jabalia camp. (dpa) 
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Israel Will Keep Gaza Buffer Zone, Minister Says, as Ceasefire Efforts Stall 

15 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike seen from Jabalia camp. (dpa) 
15 April 2025, Palestinian Territories, Gaza: Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike seen from Jabalia camp. (dpa) 

Israeli troops will remain in the buffer zones they have created in Gaza even after any settlement to end the war, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, as efforts to revive a ceasefire agreement faltered. 

Since resuming their operation last month, Israeli forces have carved out a broad "security zone" extending deep into Gaza and squeezing more than 2 million Palestinians into ever smaller areas in the south and along the coastline. 

"Unlike in the past, the Israeli army is not evacuating areas that have been cleared and seized," Katz said in a statement following a meeting with military commanders, adding that "tens of percent" of Gaza had been added to the zone. 

"The army will remain in the security zones as a buffer between the enemy and the communities in any temporary or permanent situation in Gaza - as in Lebanon and Syria." 

In southern Gaza alone, Israeli forces have seized about 20% of the enclave's territory, taking control of the border city of Rafah and pushing inland up to the so-called "Morag corridor" that runs from the eastern edge of Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea between Rafah and the city of Khan Younis. 

It already held a wide corridor across the central Netzarim area and has extended a buffer zone all around the border hundreds of meters inland, including the Shejaia area just to the east of Gaza City in the north. 

Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Hamas fighters, including many senior commanders of the Palestinian group, but the operation has alarmed the United Nations and European countries. 

More than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced since hostilities resumed on March 18 after two months of relative calm, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Israeli air strikes and bombardments have killed at least 1,630 people. 

Medical charity MSF said Gaza had become a "mass grave" with humanitarian groups struggling to provide aid. "We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza," Amande Bazerolle, MSF's emergency coordinator in Gaza said in a statement. 

Katz said Israel, which has blocked the delivery of aid supplies into the territory, was creating infrastructure to allow distribution through civilian companies at a later date. But he said the blockade on aid would remain in place. 

He said Israel would push forward with a plan to allow Gazans who wished to leave the enclave to do so, although it remains unclear which countries would be willing to accept large numbers of Palestinians. 

RED LINES 

The comments from Katz, repeating Israel's demand on Hamas to disarm, underscore how far away the two sides remain from any ceasefire agreement, despite efforts by Egyptian mediators to revive efforts to reach a deal. 

Hamas has repeatedly described calls to disarm as a red line it will not cross and has said Israeli troops must withdraw from Gaza under any permanent ceasefire. 

"Any truce lacking real guarantees for halting the war, achieving full withdrawal, lifting the blockade, and beginning reconstruction will be a political trap," Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Two Israeli officials said this week that there had been no progress in the talks despite media reports of a possible truce to allow the exchange of some of the 59 hostages still held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners. 

Israeli officials have said the increased military pressure will force Hamas to release the hostages but the government has faced large demonstrations by Israeli protesters demanding a deal to stop the fighting and get them back. 

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza in response to the October 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. 

The offensive has killed at least 51,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, and devastated the coastal enclave, forcing most of the population to move multiple times and reducing broad areas to rubble. 

On Wednesday, Palestinian medical authorities said an airstrike killed 10 people, including Fatema Hassouna, a well-known writer and photographer who had documented the war. A strike on another house further north killed three, they said. 

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said Israel's suspension of the entry of fuel, medical, and food supplies since early March had begun to obstruct the work of the few remaining working hospitals, with medical supplies drying up. 

"Hundreds of patients and wounded individuals are deprived of essential medications, and their suffering is worsening due to the closure of border crossings," the ministry said.