Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, head of the "Supreme Muslim Council of Palestine", has urged what he called the Palestinian public in Israel, Judea and Samaria to continue to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in order to ease the pressure on the Muslim residents of Israel's capital and to assist them in efforts to thwart Israel's plans in the city.
In an interview with the Hamas daily Al-Risala, Sabri said that Israel was trying to demonstrate its ability to impose facts on the ground in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, to remove the Arab presence from Jerusalem and to give the city an Israeli character. He accused Israel of taking "revenge actions" against the Arab residents of Jerusalem after it was forced to remove the electronic inspection gates at the entrance to the mosque, saying those actions included demolishing homes, removing security guards from the mosque, and an increase in the number of outbreaks by "extremist Jews" in the mosque area.