Posted on 05/14/22
| News Source: i24
Sunday coincides with the Jewish festival of Pesach Sheni
Hamas on Saturday issued a warning against Jews visiting the Temple Mount on Sunday, when the Palestinian Nakba Day and the minor Jewish festival of Pesach Sheni, or Second Passover, coincide.
Instead, the Gaza Strip-based terrorist group called for a mass Palestinian turnout to Islam's third holiest site (which is also the holiest site in Judaism).
Of the possibility of Jews present on Temple Mount, the Hamas statement said that "breaking into the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Nakba day and Israel's approval of such is a dangerous escalation that plays with the emotions of the Palestinian nation and the Arab people."
Allowing Jews to visit the Temple Mount would be tantamount to "encouraging clashes for which Israel would be held responsible."
For Palestinians, the anniversary of Israel's 1948 declaration of independence marks the Nakba, or "catastrophe," when several hundred thousand fled or were expelled during the war surrounding Israel's creation.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions were flaring up in recent days, following the death of a beloved Al Jazeera journalist in controversial circumstances and police violence at her funeral on Friday.