Ahead of Ramadan: Hamas heats up battle over Temple Mount prayers

The Hamas terrorist organization has condemned Israel’s plan to limit the number of worshippers allowed to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers during the month of Ramadan to 10,000.

Hamas called the plan, “a new escalation against the Palestinian people and the holy sites, and a dangerous precedent designed to harm the freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Hamas stressed that “Israel’s crimes will not succeed in erasing the identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, because it was, and will be, an Islamic holy site only, and there is no place for foreign occupation there. The Palestinian people and the Islamic nation will make many sacrifices in order to completely free themselves from the ‘impurity of the occupation’.”

They warned the “enemy” against implementing their plan, and accused Israel of “full responsibility for the consequences of its policy.”

Hamas also called on the international community to intervene in order to “stop the crimes against the Al-Aqsa Mosque and allow freedom of worship for Muslims,” as well as calling on the Muslim public in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, and the “occupied interior” (Israel) to come en masse to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to stay there, hold prayers there during the month of Ramadan, and to use all means to resist the attempts of Israel and its extremists to desecrate and take over the site.