Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday that any assault by the Israeli occupation on the Al-Aqsa Mosque would not go unanswered, adding that the Palestinians would foil all schemes targeting the Muslim holy site in occupied Jerusalem. 

Speaking at a conference on International Quds Day, Haniyeh added that Gaza cannot be isolated from any future confrontation, especially "if the Israeli occupation crossed red lines." 

Among the two factors that pushed the Israeli occupation to implement its schemes aimed at spatially and temporally dividing the Al-Aqsa Mosque is normalising ties and forging military and security alliances with with some Arab governments, Haniyeh pointed out.

He added that the second factor is related to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 as the Israeli occupation is taking advantage of the world's preoccupation with the Russia-Ukraine war.
  
Calling on the Arab regimes that normalised relations with the Israeli occupation to backtrack on this move, which "harms the Al-Aqsa Mosque," the Hamas chief noted that the Israeli occupation is exploiting normalisation to legitimise its occupation of the Palestinian territories. 

"The Israeli occupation's attempts to cross red lines might turn this bilateral conflict into a regional one," Haniyeh continued, stressing that no security or stability would be brought to the region unless the Palestinian people regain their full right to return to their homeland.