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Israel Building Tunnels Under Al-Aqsa
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Sept 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Esam Awad, engineer of the al-Aqsa Mosque building committee, recently discovered that Israeli authorities have been constructing two new tunnels under the Marwani Mosque within the al-Aqsa compound, reported news agencies Thursday.
The disclosure came at a time when the Palestinian Higher Islamic Commission, the Endowments Department, and the Constitutional Council cautioned Muslims against Israeli plans to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Southern Wall, said the Iranian news agency, IRNA.
Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, chairperson of the Commission and Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said in a statement that the Israeli government and its media created excuses in order to justify Israel's interference in the affairs of al-Aqsa.
He emphasized that Al-Aqsa is a sacred place "only for the Muslims around the globe."
The l-Aqsa building committee started maintenance work on the Southern Wall about four months ago, Sabri said.
"However," he pointed out that "Israeli authorities were hampering the work by preventing supply of building materials to the mosque's compound."
Ikrima rejected Israeli claims that maintenance work created a crack on the Southern Wall, stating that the crack was created about 500 years ago when a powerful earthquake hit Jerusalem.
"We Muslims will do the needful for the maintenance and renovation of the al-Aqsa Mosque and its facilities, as they belong to us only," the engineer emphasized.
"The Haram of al-Aqsa," he pointed out, "covers an area of 133 donums [about 119,700 square meters], including the outer walls, the Burak Wall, the Marwani Mosque, the Dome of the Rock Mosque and al-Aqsa.
"There will be no surrender or bargain or negotiation even on the smallest portion of Al-Aqsa Mosque, or Jerusalem and Palestine," he asserted.
In Cairo Wednesday, Hanan Ashrawi, the Arab League's media relations director, warned that Israel is taking measures to "completely isolate" Arab East Jerusalem from the West Bank.
"The Israeli government has started to take measures which amount to a dangerous escalation ... and whose goal is to completely isolate Jerusalem from the West Bank," Ashrawi said in a statement.
These measures consist of "isolating all areas surrounding Jerusalem, setting up checkpoints, [creating] closed military zones, and pursuing arrests of Jerusalem residents who work with the Palestinian Authority," Ashrawi said.
These steps are part of a continuing Israeli policy of forcing its grip on Jerusalem, manifested most recently by the occupation of Orient House and other Palestinian institutions, she went on to say.
Israel, for its part, on Wednesday reinforced security around Jerusalem and its border with the West Bank.
Israeli radio also reported that Israel would create "buffer zones", some of which will be considered forbidden military areas along the "green line" separating Israel from the Occupied Territories.
The project was decided several weeks ago by the Israeli security cabinet and will be effective starting next week, Israel radio added.
Meanwhile, an Israeli helicopter gunship killed two Palestinians in an attack on a vehicle carrying members of Palestinian president Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, but the main target escaped with slight injuries, reported BBC's online service.
The Israeli occupation army said the missile attack was aimed at Raed al Karmi, who it alleges was behind several fatal shootings of Israeli citizens.
Palestinian officials said Karmi managed to jump out of the vehicle as the missiles struck in the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
Israel has adopted a policy of assassinating Palestinian resistance leaders, stating that the Palestinian leadership does nothing to stop the violence. The international community, including Israel's strongest ally, the U.S., has condemned Israel's extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinians.
Since the start of al-Aqsa Intifada, or uprising, Israeli occupation forces have killed roughly 60 Palestinian resistance activists through the use of assassination.
Human rights campaigners say 10 of those killed were innocent bystanders.
The Tulkarm attack comes a day after a missile strike against a Palestinian security post in the Gaza Strip.
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