The head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, called on Arab and Muslim leaders and officials to take a firm stance and urgent action with practical steps to save the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing that the storming of Itamar Ben-Gvir yesterday heralds the outbreak of a new confrontation in Palestine.

This came in a detailed memorandum sent by Haniyeh to the leaders of the region regarding the policy and practices of the new occupation government towards Al-Aqsa Mosque and its plans for complete control, according to what was reported by the official Hamas website.

He pointed out that an imminent danger threatens the holy sites in Palestine, explaining that the occupation government has raised the level of its escalation by the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, storming Al-Aqsa Mosque for religious and political motives, and issuing racist statements that show the occupation’s intention to impose sovereignty over the mosque.

He added, "This is a dangerous development that cannot be ignored or accepted at all, and it portends the outbreak of a new confrontation in Palestine, which will have direct repercussions on the region."

Haniyeh explained that what is happening now in Al-Aqsa Mosque is completely different from what it was since the occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, noting that the occupation government is seeking to impose the division of Al-Aqsa and turn it into a fait accompli, in preparation for controlling it.

Haniyeh warned that the escalation in Al-Aqsa carries within it the eradication vision that the occupation was founded on, and expressed by killing the Palestinians and deporting them from their land in the worst mass massacre known to history.

He explained that the attack on Al-Aqsa comes in conjunction with the continued arrest of thousands of Palestinians, the expansion of settlements, field executions, the denial of the rights of the people of the occupied interior, the siege of Gaza, and the failure to recognize the right of refugees to return to their homeland.

He pointed out that this level of organized aggression by the occupation calls for the unification of Arab and Islamic efforts to confront it, stressing that any slowdown will be in the interest of the occupation and to establish the facts that it is trying to impose on the ground.

Ben Gvir stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday morning under special security protection, for the first time since assuming his position in the new Israeli government last Thursday, which sparked angry Palestinian, Arab and Western reactions.

Ben Gvir has previously stormed Al-Aqsa repeatedly in his personal capacity and as a member of the Israeli Knesset, but this is the first time he has stormed it as a minister within Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is described as “the most extremist government in Israel’s history.”