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Hamas threatens violence as Temple Mount reopens to Jews

Hamas has launched an online campaign calling on Muslims to flock to the Temple Mount to defend it against the Jews.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

The Hamas terror organization is threatening that the reopening of the Temple Mount for Jewish visits on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, will lead to “a renewed escalation.”

The Temple Mount is slated to be reopened to Jewish visitors on Thursday after 13 days during which Jews were barred at the holy site due to Muslim violence over the month of Ramadan and the government’s attempts at maintaining relative quiet.

A spokesman for the terror organization in Gaza, ‘Abd al-Latif al-Qa’una, said Wednesday that Israel’s approval of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount is “a detonator that will lead to a new conflict.” He called on Arabs from eastern Jerusalem to block the Jewish Israelis who will try entering the complex.

The Muslims will “not agree to the return of the break-ins,” as he called the Jewish visits, and “its division into times and space,” Hamas’ allegation that Israel is trying to make drastic changes to the status of the Temple Mount.

Hamas has launched an online campaign calling on Muslims to flock to the Temple Mount to defend it against the Jews.

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The Fatah movement, led by Mahmoud Abbas, warned of a “regional religious war” if the Temple Mount is reopened to Jews.

The police have reportedly disconnected the public address system at the Al-Aqsa Mosque to prevent incitement.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadly shooting attack at the entrance to the city of Ariel in Samaria on Friday in which Vyacheslav Golev was murdered, saying that it was the beginning of a “new phase” of quality attacks against Israel.

That attack, the terror group said, “was a response that is part of a chain of reactions of the Hamas military wing to the aggression against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The country’s security establishment is bracing for further violence, especially on Israel’s Independence Day — Nakba Day, or Day of Catastrophe, according to Israel’s enemies — and ahead of the first anniversary of Operation Guardian of the Walls.