The unabated Israeli aggression against Jerusalem and daily raids into al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli forces coupled with an Israeli plan to build 1,000 settlement units pose a real threat to the al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem’s Palestinian population, Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanoa has said.

In a press release on Monday afternoon, al-Qanoa called on Palestinian citizens of Jerusalem and the West Bank to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque and intensify popular resistance against the Israeli occupation to fight off Israeli plots targeting the Palestinian presence.

Al-Qanoa explained that the daily raids into the al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli occupation forces and settlers came as part of a bid to impose a new fait accompli at the Muslim sacred compound in Jerusalem.

Citing an Israeli plan to build 1,000 settlement units to isolate Palestinian villages from Jerusalem as part of a project dubbed “Greater Jerusalem”, al-Qanoa pointed out that this move is part of an organised Israeli campaign to drive Palestinian Jerusalemites out of their homes and lands in order to change Jerusalem’s features, judaise the holy city, and take over the al-Aqsa Mosque.