Imam Sabri included the Hamas leader who was deliberately killed in his prayers. His intercession for the “martyr” brought Israel’s law enforcement officers into action.
Israeli police have temporarily arrested the imam of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Ikrima Sabri, for praying for the slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniya. Police officers took the 85-year-old Islamic cleric away a few hours after Friday prayers, his lawyer said. Israeli media reported that police are investigating whether Sabri incited violence during Friday prayers. After questioning, authorities released him – on the condition that he not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque until August 8, the lawyer said.
Haniya, the long-time foreign chief of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, was deliberately killed on Wednesday night during a visit to Tehran. The exact circumstances of his murder are still unclear. Iran and Hamas accuse Israel of carrying out the attack. Israel has not yet commented on the matter.
In the mosques of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian preachers remembered Haniya in their Friday prayers. According to media reports, Sabri is said to have said that the residents of Jerusalem were praying to God to grant the “martyr” his mercy. “We ask for compassion and paradise for him.” Sabri also heads the Palestinian Supreme Islamic Council.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount is considered the third most important holy site in Islam. Israel conquered the Temple Mount complex along with the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. The Muslim sites are formally administered by a Jordanian foundation. Israel controls access, which it repeatedly restricts.
Haniya was buried on Friday in the Qatari capital Doha, where he had most recently lived in exile. Hamas had called on Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to hold a “day of rage”. This was to have been expressed in protest marches following Friday prayers. According to reports from residents, the call had little effect.
Israel and Hamas are at war with each other in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. The bloodshed was triggered by the unprecedented massacre carried out by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups in southern Israel on October 7th of last year. Hamas called the attack the “Al-Aqsa tidal wave”. On the Israeli side, more than 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip. Israel responded with massive air strikes and a ground offensive.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
