Israel in unprecedented digging under Aqsa mosque

The Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage (AFEH) has warned that "Israel" was launching the biggest excavations ever in the vicinity of the holy Aqsa mosque.

It said in a statement on Sunday that the campaign, described by Hebrew media as the biggest in 150 years, coincided with an unprecedented attempt to forge history and invent the presence of a Jewish city underneath and in the vicinity of the holy site.

AFEH, also quoting Hebrew media, said that the diggings had greatly escalated in the past ten years.

The foundation said that the three-pronged diggings included first a network of tunnels underneath the Aqsa and in its vicinity, the second aimed at creating a vacuum to simulate presence of a historical Jewish city in an area adjacent to the Aqsa, and the third targeted destroying Arab and Islamic relics and culture in the area.

AFEH called for an Islamic, Arab, and Palestinian strategy to confront and foil such practices and serious violations against the occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem') and the Aqsa mosque.