More hysteria about the Al-Aqsa Mosque

One wonders if this is meant to end all the current fighting between Fatah and Hamas by whipping up an anti-Israel frenzy. From IRIB:

Zionist regime workers began a dig Tuesday at buildings leads to the western wall of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque.

Palestinians have warned the work just outside the site, known to Muslims as the noble sanctuary and to Jews as the temple mount, would inflame already high tensions and officials on Tuesday warned the Zionist regime is planning to damage the compound.

Althogh the Zionist officials claim there is nothing to hide access was heavily restricted and people trying to get to the construction site were badly beaten by Zionist police.

They also restricted access for Muslim men to east Qods residents over the age of 45.

The Noblest Messenger of Allah, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) ascended from al-Aqsa Mosque to heaven in a night time journey recounted in the holy Quran.

The compound houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock Shrine.

"What is happening is an aggression," Mohammed Hussein, the Mufti of Qods, told Palestine's Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas' radio station in the Gaza Strip.

"We call on the Palestinian people to unity and unite the efforts to protect Qods."

When the Zionists opened a tunnel alongside the compound in 1996, it sparked clashes that killed 80 people.

"The continued 'Israeli' aggression on al-Aqsa Mosque and Qods require all Palestinians to unite and remember that our battle is with the occupation," said Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

He spoke as he departed for Saudi Arabia for reconciliation talks with President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah faction.

Palestinians were united in their opposition to the Zionists' plot.

Islamic Jihad said it fired two rockets from Gaza into the southern part of Zionist settled occupied Palestine to protest the construction.

Earlier, Islamic Jihad warned it would "shake the land underneath the legs of the Zionists" and that the Zionist regime was "opening the door for a new war with the Islamic nation."

The al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades along with Hamas' Qassam Brigades also warned the Zionist regime against its occupationist moves.

Raed Salah, called on Palestinians to come from all over the country to protect the site.

The danger in Qods has increased. It is high time for the Intifada of the Islamic people," Salah told reporters near the holy site on Tuesday.

Adnan Husseini, the Waqf's director, said he was concerned the new walkway could damage the original earthen ramp, which he said was Waqf property and contained ruins of archaeological significance.

The new construction, he said, constituted a violation of the site.

"This is a very dangerous project that will damage things of great historical value in this very sensitive place," Husseini said.

Husseini said he suspected that the excavations around the holy site were attempts to tunnel under it and demanded that the Zionist regime cease all digs immediately.

"We call for an end to all excavations," he said.

Jordan, which has a custodial role over the site, expressed concern about the work there, according to the Kingdom's official Petra news agency.

Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh quoted Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit as saying that the dig was "a big concern to Jordan, its King, people and government," Petra reported.

Tags: Iran, Temple Mount, Israel, Palestinians