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Palestinian Foreign Ministry Denounces Targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Al-Aqsa mosque reflects in a puddle next to a gate to the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem's Old City December 27, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The Al-Aqsa mosque reflects in a puddle next to a gate to the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem's Old City December 27, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Palestinian Foreign Ministry Denounces Targeting of Al-Aqsa Mosque

The Al-Aqsa mosque reflects in a puddle next to a gate to the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem's Old City December 27, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The Al-Aqsa mosque reflects in a puddle next to a gate to the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as The Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem's Old City December 27, 2019. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (MOFAE) denounced on Sunday the storming of the Dome of the Rock a day after preventing the Al-Aqsa Mosque Reconstruction Committee from conducting maintenance works in El-Marwani Mosque.

Israeli forces on Sunday broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound and prevented staff from repairing marble and internal struts inside the Dome of the Rock.

Bassam Al-Hallaq, head of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Reconstruction Committee, said that a number of Israeli soldiers stormed the Dome of the Rock and threatened staff with arrest or banishment if they continued the maintenance works.

On Saturday, Israeli troops prevented the Al-Aqsa Mosque Reconstruction Committee from conducting maintenance works in El-Marwani Mosque, he added.

For years, the Israeli authorities have been hindering several essential maintenances and repairing in Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound.

In a statement on Sunday, MOFA decried the flagrant targeting of Al-Aqsa and its vicinity.

It held the occupation’s cabinet responsible for the ongoing aggression on the Mosque, which is seen as a provocation of Arab and Muslim sentiments.

The ministry warned of consequences, considering these practices as an Israeli attempt to drag the region into a religious conflict.

MOFA demanded that the specialized international organizations including UNESCO bear ethical and legal liability towards the continuous aggressions on Christian and Islamic sacred sites in Jerusalem.

The ministry urged a prompt action to protect Al-Aqsa from the plots of demolition and division, stressing that it is coordinating with the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate to reinforce efforts to protect the sacred sites namely Al-Aqsa.

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Arab World

Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Hospital Shut after Israeli Raid, Director Held

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan hospital, shows the damage inside the hospital, during the ongoing Israeli military operation, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Stringer

An Israeli military raid targeting Hamas militants has forced a major hospital in northern Gaza out of service and led to the detention of its director, the WHO and health officials said Saturday.
The assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital has rendered the facility "useless", further worsening Gaza's severe health crisis, the Palestinian territory's health officials said.
"This morning's raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the World Health Organization said overnight on X, referring to the Israeli operation that began in the early hours of Friday.
The WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including some on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital, AFP reported.
Patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed, non-functioning Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding it was "deeply concerned for their safety".
Hamas-run Gaza's health ministry reported that Israeli forces detained Kamal Adwan Hospital's director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, along with several medical staff members.
Gaza's civil defense agency said Abu Safiyeh was held alongside its north Gaza chief, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout.
The Israeli military did not comment on the detentions.
Ammar al-Barsh, a resident of Jabalia where the military has focused its assault in recent weeks, said the raid on Kamal Adwan and its environs had left dozens of homes in the area in ruins.
"The situation is catastrophic, there is no medical service, no ambulances and no civil defense in the north," Barsh, 50, told AFP.
The army "continues to raid the Kamal Adwan Hospital and the surrounding houses, and we hear gunfire from Israeli drones and artillery shelling", he added.
'Heinous crime'
In the days leading up to the raid, Abu Safiyeh had repeatedly warned about the hospital's precarious situation, accusing Israeli forces of targeting the facility.
On Monday, he issued a statement accusing Israel of targeting the hospital "with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside".
On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said five staff members of the hospital had been killed in an Israeli strike near the facility.
Since October 6, Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza, saying its goal is to prevent Hamas militants from regrouping.
The military said Friday that it was acting on intelligence regarding "terrorist infrastructure and operatives" in the hospital's vicinity.
Before initiating the latest operation near the hospital, the military said its troops had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients, and medical personnel".
Hamas has denied claims its operatives were present at the hospital, accusing Israeli forces of storming it on Friday.
"The enemy's lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement," Hamas said in a statement.
Gaza's health ministry had earlier quoted Abu Safiyeh reporting that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital".
Abu Safiyeh said the military had also "evacuated the entire medical staff and displaced people".
"There are a large number of injuries among the medical team."
'Death sentence'
Iran, which backs Hamas, "strongly condemned the brutal attack", with a foreign ministry statement calling it "the latest example of war crimes, crimes against humanity, (and) gross violations of international law and norms".
The Israeli military has regularly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers for attacks against its forces throughout the war.
Hamas has denied the accusations.
The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
"This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October," the WHO said.
"Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care."
Meanwhile, Hamas's media center reported "massive Israeli air and artillery strikes in Beit Hanoun", in northern Gaza .
The Israeli military says it has killed hundreds of militants since the stepped-up assault in northern Gaza began on October 6, while rescuers in the area say thousands of civilians have died in the sweeping offensive.
Gaza civil defense also reported that in a separate Israeli strike in central Gaza at least nine Palestinians were killed on Saturday.
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel last year, which resulted in 1,208 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,436 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.