The leader of the Palestinian group Hamas on Thursday called on Muslims to defend the al-Aksa mosque compound in Jerusalem, saying Israel was trying to seize the site, revered in Islam and Judaism and focus of a Palestinian uprising in 2000. Khaled Meshaal, speaking in the Qatari capital Doha where he lives in exile, said: 'We call on all our people inside the country to hurry up to al-Aksa to defend it.' Meshaal said the Israeli government was taking advantage of Arab preoccupation with regional turmoil, particularly in Syria and Iraq, to try to take over al-Aksa, the third holiest shrine in Islam which is also revered by Jews as the former site of a Biblical temple. 'We call on the nation to be angry and to send a message of painful anger to the world that the Palestinian people, the Arab and Muslim nation, will not be silent at the Israeli crime,' Meshaal said.
(photo credit: The Jerusalem Post)