Doha: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly condemned a far-right minister’s storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque along with hundreds of extremist settlers. Slamming the move as a provocation to the feelings of Muslims worldwide and a flagrant violation of relevant UN resolutions, the OIC warned of the danger of the continued Israeli occupation policies based on aggression, settlement, annexation, and displacement, as well as attempts to impose alleged Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank and plans to change the historical and legal status of Islamic holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to Qatar News Agency, the OIC stressed that Israel, the occupying power, has no sovereignty over the Palestinian territories, including the occupied city of Jerusalem and its holy sites. The organization also condemned in the strongest terms the escalation of the Israeli occupation’s crimes against the crews of humanitarian, UN, medical, and journalistic organizations in the Gaza Strip, the latest of which was the massacre committed against the displaced in a UNRWA clinic in Jabalia camp, north of the Gaza Strip.

The OIC considered this massacre that killed 19 Palestinians, including nine children and left dozens wounded, alongside the execution of a number of workers in the Palestinian Red Crescent, Civil Defense, and the United Nations, in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip an extension of war crimes that require accountability and prosecution in accordance with international criminal law.