Jordan says Israel’s al-Aqsa mosque restrictions put region at risk of ‘explosion’
AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Monday that restrictions imposed by Israel on Muslim worshipers’ access to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound during Ramada were pushing the situation towards an “explosion.”
In remarks on state media, Safadi said his country, which oversees the holy site, rejected Israel’s announced move to limit access during the Muslim fasting month due to security issues as war rages in Gaza.
“We warn that desecrating the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque is playing with fire,” Safadi said in a joint news conference with the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher.
The compound, the third-holiest shrine in Islam, is also the site of the most sacred place for Jews, who know it as Temple Mount. It has been a longstanding flashpoint for trouble.
Jordan echoes the Palestinian view that restrictions on Muslim worshipers, already facing war and hunger in Gaza, are an attack on freedom of worship.
After hard-right Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said recently that he wanted tougher restrictions, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the number of worshipers admitted would be similar to last year.
“Not allowing worshipers to perform their religious duties and their rituals in this holy month and restricting freedom to enter the Aqsa mosque – all that pushes towards an explosive situation, which is what we are warning about,” Safadi added.
Israel was also risking wider violence in the
West Bank, Safadi said, citing what he said were unilateral Israeli measures to change the status quo, accelerated Jewish settlement building, and what he claimed were stepped-up “terror attacks by armed settlers on Palestinian villagers.” “The West Bank is boiling,” Safadi added. Since the Gaza war, the West Bank has seen a surge of confrontations, with around 400 Palestinians killed in clashes with security forces or Jewish settlers and several Palestinian terror attacks against Jewish communities.
“Ramadan comes with Gaza bombed by Israel, women unable to find food for their children, and five months that have passed with the world failing to preserve human dignity,” Safadi said.
Israel’s relentless campaign in Gaza has caused increasing alarm across the world as the growing risk of famine threatens to add to a death toll that has already passed 31,000.
Israel denies it is responsible for the wider hunger or waging war on civilians, saying that Hamas has been withholding food and other aid.