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Palestinian Foreign Ministry urges U.S. to ban citizens from trespassing Al-Aqsa Mosque

Xinhua, August 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged the U.S. State Department to ban its citizens from taking part in daily "incursions" into Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.

The ministry condemned in an emailed press statement the participation of a congressman from the U.S. State of Utah Mike Lee in the "incursion of settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday."

Scores of settlers stormed into Al-Aqsa mosque compound through the Dung Gate Tuesday under heavy military protection by Israeli police and took provocative tours in the yards of the holy mosque, according to Palestinian sources.

The statement considered the incursion as "illegal and a flagrant intervention in Palestinian affairs," and as backing the provocative moves by extremist Jewish groups aiming to change the status quo at the mosque.

The ministry will follow up on this matter "through all possible political and diplomatic channels," said the statement.

The statement blamed the Israeli government, lead by Benjamin Netanyahu, for supporting the extremist Jewish groups on its daily attacks against the holy mosque, adding that the Israeli authorities are carrying out excavations underneath the holy site "in order to forge the history of the region."

Israeli sources were not immediately available for comments.

Palestinians want to declare east Jerusalem, including the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque, as a capital of their state, while Israel insists that Jerusalem, undivided, is the capital of Israel.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem during the 1967 war, and the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, since it declared west Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, saying it is a violation of the UN partition resolution adopted in 1947. Endit