Ikrama Sabri, a preacher in the Al-Aksa mosque and Mufti of Jerusalem, called on all Muslims to conquer Jerusalem and “the rest of Palestine which is under Zionist occupation.” Sabri warned that any Muslim or Muslim government who did not work to conquer these lands would be committing a sin.

Sabri also repeated earlier claims that Israel’s repair work and archeological digs in Jerusalem’s Old City would damage the Al-Aksa mosque, despite the fact that international teams have declared the mosque to be completely safe. Sabri called on the Muslim world not to wait for a clear danger to the mosque, but rather to preemptively force Israel to stop the work. Even if the work does not threaten the mosque, he said, it is an attack on Muslim authority in the Old City.