PLO, Hamas condemn Israeli ‘attacks’ at Temple Mount

Senior Palestinian Liberation Organization official Saeb Erekat denounces what he terms “attacks by the Israeli occupation authority and its provocations in the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” saying they are “dragging the region into a new cycle of violence that will threaten the security of the entire region.”

Erekat’s comments come after clashes at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City between police and Muslim worshipers, following the entry of Jewish visitors to the site for Jerusalem Day. The holiday this year coincides with the final days of Ramadan, when non-Muslims are traditionally barred from entering the Temple Mount.

Hamas, the Palestinian terror group which rules the Gaza Strip, likewise condemns the “brutal attack by the occupation forces on the sanctuaries in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the storming by hundreds of extremist settlers.”