ALJAZEERA
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.
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