Israel arrests top Waqf officials in Jerusalem in overnight raid

Israeli police have arrested the head of the Islamic authority that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem following recent protests, an official from the authority said.

Religious Endowments Authority (Al Waqf) director Sheikh Abdul Azim Salhab was arrested early on Sunday as part of an overnight raid carried out by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Mahdi Abdelhadi, a senior member of Al Waqf, said.

At least 13 other Palestinians have also been arrested, including Salhab’s deputy, according to Maan news agency.

Al Waqf officials told Israeli daily Haaretz that Salhab’s arrest was unusual.

“He’s the most senior Jordanian figure in the [Palestinian] territories. Twenty years ago [if] the police wanted to interrogate the mufti, they would call and invite him, but coming to a 75-year-old’s home like that at 5am is unacceptable,” the official was quoted as saying.

The head of Jordan’s Ministry of Al Waqf and Islamic Affairs strongly condemned Salhab’s arrest, Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency reported.

Abdulnasser Abu al-Bassal accused Israel of “playing with fire amid difficult circumstances”.

He also described a warrant issued against Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib in Jerusalem, head of the Al Waqf, as an unacceptable escalation that affects Jordan‘s role as the custodian of holy sites in Jerusalem.

Al-Bassal called for the release of those imprisoned and for the cancellation of al-Khatib’s warrant.

The arrest came after Palestinians on Friday prayed at an area by the Al-Rahma gate, located inside occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, for the first time in 16 years.

It is a passageway of gates and a stairway leading to a hall that had been closed by Israeli authorities for years, and was reopened on Friday by Muslim religious officials. The hall is located a short distance from Al-Aqsa Mosque itself.

The Israeli authorities closed the area in 2003. In 2017, an Israeli court upheld the closure order.

But on Friday, the Religious Endowments Authority, a Jordan-run agency mandated with overseeing East Jerusalem‘s Muslim and Christian holy sites, announced the reopening of the mosque.

Salhab opened the doors of the hall, and worshipers performed Friday prayers there.

Israeli police accused the Al Waqf of attempting to change the status quo at the sensitive site by convening in the closed area.

Last week, Israeli authorities closed the Al-Rahma gate, preventing hundreds of Palestinian worshippers from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli police arrested 60 people before Friday prayers at the complex amid a week of tension over access to that corner of the mosque’s compound.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies