Gazan Hamas-supporters on Temple Mount
Gazan Hamas-supporters on Temple MountSliman Khader/Flash 90

Muslims will never allow the Jews to rebuild the Temple, the deputy leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel said forcefully on Sunday in lieu of a Rosh Hashanah greeting. 

In an interview with the Hamas-affiliated Palestine magazine, Kamal al-Khatib accused the Israeli establishment of "blinding its eyes and closing its ears" to reason and truth. 

Israel, he asserted, has taken advantage of the situation in the Arab region, coordinating security with the Palestinian Authority to advance its "malaria-riddled, mad plans" to rebuild the Temple on the ruins of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. 

According to Khatib, the plan to implement worship on the Temple Mount for both Jews and Muslims is really a ploy to demolish the mosque and build the Third Temple in its place. 

But, Khatib says, even if Israel were successful in destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque, as well as "annihilating" the Palestinian people, the Arab world would never allow Judaism's holiest site to be rebuilt. 

"You can deport whoever you want, kill whoever you want, dance based on the illusions of the prophets, believe the fairy-tales of rabbis, and even if the Western world will support you, the Al-Aqasa mosque...will never become a Jewish Temple," he concluded.

Khatib's statement coincidentally come after a violent attack by Arab rioters on Sunday against Israeli police patrolling the Temple Mount.