The International Commission “Hashd” condemns the tragic event that occurred at the Al-Awda Mosque in Rafah City and demands an investigation into the circumstances behind it.

Reference number: 63/ 2023

Date: July 20, 2023

Native language: Arabic

Press release

The International Commission “Hashd” condemns the tragic event that occurred at the Al-Awda Mosque in Rafah City and demands an investigation into the circumstances behind it.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights “Hashd” responds with concern and condemnation to the unfortunate event that occurred in Rafah’s Al-Awda Mosque immediately after evening prayer, as well as the accompanying attack by Hamas members on citizen Yahya Mansour, the Jihad official in the mosque, and broke his hand.

Unfortunately, these condemned events occurred two days after the ending of a positive meeting between representatives of Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Rafah on the morning of Tuesday 7/18/2023, which resulted in positive understandings to end the crisis that arose as a result of a dispute over holding an activity in the courtyard of the mosque due to the nature of joint work in the mosque between Hamas and Jihad two days before the incident.

According to available information and Yahya Mansour’s video testimony, he was surprised by an attack by many Hamas citizens who entered the mosque while performing the Sunnah prayer and in the presence of a religious lesson in the Al-Awda Mosque and in front of a crowd of worshipers present, where he was assaulted with chairs and hands and severely beaten and chased to the civil defense headquarters.

This led to his hand being broken and bruised as a result of the attack, in addition to the injury of an elderly man from the Qeshta family while trying to defend the citizen Mansour Which caused him to break his pelvis.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights “Hashd” confirms that this incident violates the rule of law and contributes to the spread of hate speech and violence, and it believes that the crime of assaulting citizen Mansour in the mosque necessitates urgent and effective concerted efforts at the level of governmental agencies, political forces, civil society organizations, and religious, educational, and media institutions to confirm the rejection of the attack, and to confirm, also, the rejection of all manifestations of violence and taking the law into one’s hands and prejudice the prestige of the institutions of law and the judiciary.

Based on the foregoing, the International Commission (Hashd) calls on the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements to contain the incident, resort to dialogue, and overcome any crises and problems in a way that prevents the recurrence of previous unfortunate incidents in the conflict over mosque management, which should not be allowed to become a place of tension, tension, and conflict.

The International Commission “Hashd” calls on the Public Prosecution to investigate the incident, identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice, announce the findings of the investigation, and take legal measures to prevent the conflict from recurring in and inside mosques.

The International Commission “Hashd” calls for the establishment of a national committee comprised of the relevant authorities to investigate the circumstances that led to the occurrence of this incident and to deal with it under the law, in a manner that preserves civil peace and national relations while also promoting religious tolerance, pluralism, and acceptance of difference.

Finished.

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights “Hashd”