Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Illegal Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, Triggering Clashes in Jerusalem, Condemnations,

July 26, 2012

20 illegal Israeli Jewish settlers burst into Aqsa plazas under heavy security escort

[ 26/07/2012 - 12:55 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Israeli occupation forces and policemen provided heavy escort for 20 illegal Israeli Jewish settlers who stormed the holy Aqsa Mosque on Thursday morning.

Local sources said that the settlers offered religious rituals and insulted Arabs and Muslims and threatened worshipers.

Settlers deliberately break into the mosque before prayers’ times to ensure the minimum presence of worshipers.

Violent confrontations in Jerusalem following storming of Aqsa

[ 26/07/2012 - 09:25 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)--

Dozens of Jerusalemite youths engaged in violent confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in a number of suburbs in occupied Jerusalem at dawn Thursday.

Eyewitnesses said that the confrontations flared after Jewish settlers and policemen stormed the holy Aqsa Mosque, forced out worshippers, and arrested a religious scholar for refusing to get out of the Mosque.

The Israeli occupation government has allowed Jewish settlers to intensify their desecration of the Aqsa Mosque during the holy fasting month of Ramadan under heavy security protection.

Jordan's trade unions calls for Arab and Islamic action to protect Aqsa Mosque

[ 26/07/2012 - 09:30 AM ]

AMMAN, (PIC)--

The Jordanian council of trade unions strongly denounced the break-in at the Aqsa Mosque by Jewish settlers on Tuesday and called for immediate Arab and Islamic moves to prevent the occurrence of such violations against the Mosque.

"This is something offending to the feelings of all Muslims and blatantly violating the sanctity of the holy sites," head of the council Ahmed Al-Armouti stated on Wednesday.

Armouti warned against extremist Jewish settlers' intention to desecrate the Aqsa Mosque next Sunday to commemorate their alleged destruction of the temple anniversary.

The unionist urged the Jordanian government to necessarily make further efforts to protect the Aqsa Mosque against the repeated Jewish violations.

He also called on the UN and the Arab League to condemn these violations and prevent their occurrence.

Barhoum: Storming the Aqsa Mosque is a religious war

[ 26/07/2012 - 12:52 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Spokesman for the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Fawzi Barhoum, has charged that storming the Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) fell in line with the Israeli racist policy against the Arab, Islamic sanctities.

Barhoum told the PIC on Thursday that the Israeli religious war against the Islamic holy shrines exploited the absence of the Arab and Islamic protection of the Aqsa Mosque and other holy shrines. He also blamed the PA’s negotiations project supported by the US administration for such an Israeli audacity.

He called on the PA to champion a firm position to delegitimize the occupation, and called for organizing a protecting net for the Aqsa Mosque and Islamic holy shrines.

Barhoum called on the Palestinian resistance to exercise its leading role in protecting the land and holy sites and stop the occupation violations.

IOF troops stormed at dawn Thursday the Aqsa Mosque where they arrested the imam of the mosque and forced the worshipers to leave the holy site.

Sources in Jerusalem said that 20 worshipers were at the mosque for al-Fajer prayer and suddenly the Israeli police broke into the mosque, arrested the mosque's Imam and took him to an unknown location.

Arab League warns of escalation in Israeli settlement policy

[ 26/07/2012 - 09:40 AM ]

CAIRO, (PIC)--

The Arab League stated on Wednesday that the Israeli regime escalated lately its settlement and Judaization activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Arab League said in a press release that the Israeli regime in recent days started to attack the Palestinian natives and their homes in the villages and towns surrounding occupied Jerusalem and Al-Khalil city. It added that Israel issued decisions to remove eight Palestinian villages and communities south of Al-Khalil city, namely, the villages of Majaz, Tabana, Wasfi, Fakheit, Halawa, Markaz, Janba and Kharruba.

The League noted that Israel, through such practices, would render more Palestinian natives along with their children homeless and destroy their farms and means of livelihood in order to establish and expand its settlements in place of their lands.

It warned that Israel's escalation of its violations and settlement activities would augment the level of tension and instability in the region.

It stressed the need for more active role by the UN, the permanent member states of the Security Council and the international quartet on the Middle East to protect the occupied people of Palestine.