News - Middle East: The Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements have vehemently condemned the desecration of the Holy Qur’an by the extremist Israeli settlers in the Old City of al-Khalil, south of the occupied West Bank.

In a press release on Monday, Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanu said the desecration of the Muslim holy book was an “unprecedented escalation” and a “disrespectful racist behavior,” stressing that such a crime showed that the occupying regime and its settlers want “a religious war on Islam.”

Qanu also said that the Jewish religious holidays “involve attacks on the Palestinian people and their holy sites.”

In yet another blasphemous act and provocation against Palestinian Muslims, the Israeli settlers tore and burned the copies of the Holy Qur’an on Monday before "throwing them in a trash container" in the Old City of al-Khalil.

Islamic Jihad official Khader Adnan said in a statement that the burning of the Holy Qur’an by Zionist extremists is “an [at of] aggression targeting our true religion and the eternal message of our Prophet (PBUH), and a dangerous escalation in the context of the aggression against the sanctities, and the storming of al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Adnan stressed the need to boost resistance in all its forms in the areas of clashes with the occupation and its settlers in response to the crime of burning the Muslim holy book and targeting of holy sites.

The Islamic Jihad official said the crime had targeted the “most sublime religions and heavenly missions,” calling for a responsible stance by Muslim scholars in the face of the blasphemous act.

The sacrilegious move took place following a series of recent violations committed by groups of Israeli settlers against al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied city of al-Quds.

Over the past couple of weeks, hundreds of settlers escorted by the Israeli police have intruded into the holy site on a daily basis and provocatively performed rituals during the Jewish holidays.

Over 270 Israeli settlers break into al-Aqsa again

Meanwhile, Palestinian media said scores of Israeli settlers in different groups intruded into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied Old City of al-Quds on Monday morning and later in the afternoon.

The reports said at least 278 extremist settlers, under tight protection from the Israeli military forces, broke into the compound through the Moroccan Gate and performed rituals and Talmudic prayers.

The Israeli occupation police imposed movement restrictions on Muslim worshipers at al-Aqsa Mosque’s entrances and gates while the intrusion was taking place.

More than 4,400 Israeli settlers made their way into the holy site and prayed there last month.

Such mass settler break-ins almost always take place at the behest of Tel Aviv-backed temple groups and under the auspices of the Israeli police in al-Quds.

The al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits just above the Western Wall plaza, houses both the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Israeli regime enables the Jewish visitation of al-Aqsa despite the fact that an agreement signed between Israel and the Jordanian government in the wake of Israel’s occupation of East al-Quds in 1967 prohibits non-Muslim worship at the compound.

Source: Press TV