GAZA CITY, 9 April 2005 — Palestinian militant groups warned yesterday that violence would explode across the region if a group of ultranationalist Jews tries to make good on threats to descend on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound tomorrow. In a sharply worded warning, they said any extremist Jewish rally around the mosque would be tantamount to a declaration of war which would destroy the informal truce they have been observing.
“We are warning the Zionists against any such stupidity ... which would be seen as a declaration of war without possibility of truce or calming down,” the groups said in a joint statement. Signatories included the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Popular Resistance Committees.
The sentiment was forcefully echoed in a separate statement by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. “Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque are a red line that no Zionist should be able to cross,” it said. The warnings were issued after the ultranationalist Jewish group Revava announced plans to organize a 10,000-strong prayer session at the disputed compound. The compound is the third holiest site in Islam.
Thousands of Israeli police were deployed in and around the Old City during Friday prayers for fear that mass protests would erupt. But the prayers passed without incident, with some 10,000 worshippers attending a fiery sermon by the mosque’s top cleric, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein. “Muslims, both in this country and around the world, will not allow anyone to attack their faith or to pollute their mosque,” he told the congregation, saying the mosque was an “exclusively Muslim shrine”.
“The occupation authorities will bear the responsibility for the consequences of any attack on the mosque by settlers or Jewish extremists,” he said. Deeply concerned that extremists attempt to attack the shrine in a bid to thwart Israel’s planned pullout from Gaza this summer, the Israeli authorities have ordered police to close the compound to all non-Muslims tomorrow to block the demonstration.
Speaking to the thousands amassed in Gaza City, top Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders warned any attempt by Jewish nationalists to enter the Al-Aqsa compound would unleash a wave of fury. Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh said the informal truce “would explode like a volcano if Al-Aqsa is violated, and the enemy would take the responsibility for such a stupid act. “Any new violation of Al-Aqsa would spark a third intifada,” he threatened.
Islamic Jihad’s Mohammed Al-Hindi said that “touching the Al-Aqsa mosque would set the entire region alight”. “If they invade Al-Aqsa, the settlers and the extremists will end the truce and no one will be able to predict the consequences,” he said.
Other demonstrations took place across the West Bank, in the northern city of Nablus and the southern town of Hebron. In Nablus, some 2,000 people gathered in the city centre where a local Hamas official warned any move against the mosque would see the radical group send its suicide bombers straight back into Israel.
And in the Palestinian refugee camp in Bass, Lebanon, some 5,000 Hamas followers swore to protect the mosque compound.
