Merve Aydogan
May 08, 2021•Update: May 09, 2021
ANKARA
Turkey's president on Saturday strongly condemned Israel’s recent violence against worshippers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
"We strongly condemn Israel's heinous attacks against our first qibla Al-Aqsa Mosque, that are unfortunately being carried out every Ramadan," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a tweet.
The president also expressed solidarity with the people of Palestine, saying: "As Turkey, we will continue to stand by our Palestinian brothers and sisters in all circumstances."
Erdogan also shared the same message in Turkish, Arabic and Hebrew via social media.
Israeli forces fired stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets to disperse Muslim worshippers from the mosque, the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims, on Friday evening.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent, at least 205 people were injured by Israeli forces in the Old City and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhoods.
Tensions have run high in the Sheikh Jarrah area all through the week as Israeli settlers have swarmed in after an Israeli court ordered the eviction of Palestinian families.
Since 1956, a total of 37 Palestinian families have been living in 27 homes in the neighborhood. However, illegal Jewish settlers have been trying to push them out on the basis of a law approved by the Israeli parliament in 1970.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is seen as occupied territory under international law, thus making all Jewish settlements there illegal.
