The Hamas terror group on Thursday threatened violent “repercussions” over Jewish visits to Jerusalem’s super-sensitive Temple Mount, in a warning issued days before the start of the Jewish High Holidays when visitor numbers increase.
The holy site in the Old City of Jerusalem has long been the focus of tensions, but Palestinians have voiced increasing anger at the rising number of visits by Jews, who revere the compound as their holiest site.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of the Gaza-ruling Hamas, warned, “The continuation of the Zionist aggression and their brutality against Jerusalem and the holy shrines will be the cause of a major battle.”
Speaking in a rare press conference in Gaza’s Omari mosque, al-Zahar alluded to Palestinian concerns that a longstanding convention by which Jews may visit but not pray in the compound was being covertly flouted.
