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XPost: or.politics
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 24 Aug 2024
Hamas has called on Arab and Muslim countries and organisations to
condemn and express outrage against Israeli forces for burning copies
of the Quran at a mosque in Gaza.
“The burning of copies of the Quran and desecration and destruction of
mosques confirm the extremist nature of this entity and its
hate-filled criminal soldiers and their fascist behaviour against
anything related to the identity and sanctities of our nation,” the
Palestinian group said in a statement on Saturday.
Al Jazeera Arabic had aired footage, obtained from the cameras of
Israeli soldiers, showing them ripping up pages from the Muslim holy
book and burning them at the Bani Saleh Mosque in northern Gaza.
The channel also published a video from an Israeli drone showing the
bombing of the historic Grand Mosque in Khan Younis.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, Israel has completely
destroyed 610 mosques and three churches over the past 10 months in
Gaza.
On Saturday, Hamas called on “the free people of the world” to act to
defend Muslim and Christian holy sites in Palestine and end “the war
of extermination” against the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 40,200 Palestinians and
turned large parts of the besieged Palestinian territory into rubble.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a US advocacy group, said
the desecration of Quran copies and targeting of mosques in Gaza prove
that Israel’s “war on the Palestinian people in Gaza is also a war on
Islam itself”.
The group also called on United States President Joe Biden to denounce
Israeli abuses.
“The Biden administration must condemn this religious desecration and
suspend weapons transfers to the Israeli government to force an end to
its campaign of slaughter and starvation in Gaza,” CAIR’s executive
director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
Muslim Palestinians in Gaza have continued to hold communal prayers
next to the ruins of destroyed mosques. But worshippers have been
attacked by Israeli bombardment during prayer gatherings on several
occasions.
Last month, an Israeli attack on worshippers who gathered to pray near
a destroyed mosque at the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza killed
at least 20 people.
Earlier this month, the Israeli army also bombed a school sheltering
displaced civilians in Gaza City during morning prayer, killing more
than 100 people.
Israeli soldiers have been repeatedly accused of committing violations
against Muslim holy sites.
In December of last year, Israeli troops recited Jewish prayers and
Hanukkah songs from the pulpit of a mosque they had raided in Jenin in
the occupied West Bank.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/24/hamas-urges-anger-and-condemnation-over-quran-burning-by-israeli-soldiers
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