Qatar condemns Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque

ANKARA

Qatar on Sunday condemned the Israeli attacks on worshippers at the east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“The State of Qatar expressed its condemnation in the strongest terms of the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, by hundreds of Israeli settlers in the early hours of the day, and the injury of a number of worshipers caused by the Israeli occupation forces aggression against them,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It added that the attacks on worshippers and religious sites are “clear provocation to the feelings of Muslims”.

It also called on the international community to carry out its moral and legal responsibilities to stop the repeated Israeli attacks and provide the necessary protection for Muslim worshippers.

Hundreds of settlers forced their way into the flashpoint site on Sunday, in a rare tour in the final days of the fasting month of Ramadan, which ends this week.

The tour has triggered clashes between Muslim worshippers and Israeli police, which chased assaulted a number of worshippers during the violence.

Six worshippers were reportedly arrested during the violence.

Sunday’s violence came following calls by Jewish groups for settlers to converge on the site to mark what they call the “reunification of Jerusalem”

Israel has illegally occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

In a move never recognized by the international community, Israel annexed the entire city in 1980, claiming it as the self-proclaimed Jewish state’s “eternal and undivided” capital.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

International law continues to view both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territory.