PNA, Hamas warn of worldwide tension over Jerusalem standoff

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday warned that "Israeli attacks on holy places" could spark tension across the world.

The warning was made after tens of Palestinians were wounded by Israeli riot police in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Witnesses said that some 150 Palestinian prayers and a group of Jews clashed in the campus which contains al-Aqsa mosque and the Western Wall, they are Muslim and Jewish holy cites.

The Israeli police, which accompanied by the Jewish worshipers, fired tear gas and sonic blasters at the Muslim crowds and beat them with sticks, witnesses said.

"This is a new Israeli aggression on a pure part of the Muslims' belief and this alerts of unfavorable consequences, not only on the Palestinian people, but also on the entire world, including Israel," said Mahmoud al-Habbash, Palestinian minister of religious affairs.

He accused Israel of using excessive force "to blow up the peace process, evade from the political obligations and gets its government out from impasse after the international community knew that government's intentions against peace and stability in the region."

"If the international community did not intervene, everyone will repent," al-Habbash, who is also an aide to president Mahmoud Abbas, told Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that "the continuation of attacks on Islamic sacred places may open a round of confrontation against the Israeli occupation."

Ismail Radwam, a Hamas spokesman, told Xinhua that the consequences of the Israeli measures in Jerusalem "would be reflected in the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic nations."

On Sept. 28, 2000, former Israeli premier Ariel Sharon, an opposition leader then, broke into the complex of al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, fueling the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising which is still glowing.

Radwan accused the PNA, which holds sway in the West Bank, of cracking down against the Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank, adding that "the Israeli occupation would never have dared to carry out such an aggression if the PNA were not uprooting the resistance."

Abbas has finally met Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week, in protest against the continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Most of the Palestinian factions slammed the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian meetings in New York, saying they annulled the PNA's stances not to resume the peace negotiations before the settlement stops.