'Declaration of war': Palestinian groups warn Israel of plan to divide al-Aqsa

The Palestinian Resistance factions said in a joint statement on Thursday evening that the plan proposed by Amit Halevi, a Likud party lawmaker in the Israeli Knesset (parliament), will further deteriorate security status in the West Bank and will push it towards explosion.

The groups also held the far-right Israeli administration led by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu fully responsible for the dire repercussions of implementing the highly controversial plan.

They underlined that the entire Palestinian people and resistance groups will not tolerate such a flagrant act of aggression, and will not spare any effort to stop the plan.

 “The heinous plot falls within the framework of systematic Judaization schemes that the Zionist authorities have long been pursuing, and are aimed at dividing the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and imposing the regime’s control and sovereignty over it,” the statement read.

It urged the entire Muslim nation to fulfill their duties and resist the Tel Aviv regime's plots against al-Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque.

The resistance groups urged Palestinians to flock to al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards, intensify their resistance against Israeli forces and impose “consequences” on the Israeli regime for its crimes, especially by carrying out retaliatory operations in the 1948-occupied territories.

According to the Arabic-language al-Ayyam daily newspaper, Halevi has suggested allocating the southern part of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound to Muslims, while Jewish extremist settlers get the central and northern parts, including the Dome of the Rock.

The Israeli lawmaker said his plan was aimed at ending Jordan's guardianship of the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Sheikh Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the incumbent Grand Mufti of al-Quds, denounced Israeli attempts to Judaize and split al-Aqsa Mosque, let extremist settlers worship in the holy site and change its historical and legal status.

He warned that such actions would spark a religious war that would affect the whole world, and no one would escape its consequences. He also held Israeli officials responsible for the harmful effects of increasing tensions in the occupied West Bank.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound is located above the Western Wall plaza and contains both the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government after Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967, non-Muslim worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound is prohibited.

Many of the Israeli Knesset members are right-wing extremists, who apparently support the demolition of the Islamic site in order to build a Jewish temple instead.

Palestinians want the occupied West Bank as part of their future independent state and view al-Quds’ eastern sector as the capital of their future sovereign state.