JERUSALEM, Thursday, January 28, 2021 (WAFA) - The Committee for the Reconstruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque resumed today restoration work at the Islamic holy site after the Israeli occupation authorities had prevented it for several days from doing the needed repairs at the Dome of the Rock and the underground Marawani mosques at Al-Haram Al-Sharif in Jerusalem’s old city.

Sources said the restoration including repairing of mosaics, drawings, columns at the two mosques that form, along with Al-Aqsa Mosque, the wall-in compound of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, Islam’s third holiest site after Mekkah and Medina.

The Israeli occupation authorities last week prevented the Islamic Waqf from doing any restoration work at the compound, claiming it did not obtain a permit for the work.

The Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem, a Jordanian government department, says it has sole responsibility for the Islamic holy site and therefore does not need a permit from Israel to do restoration work in it.

As a result, Jordan, which is the official custodian over the Islamic and Christian holy places in occupied East Jerusalem, intervened with Israel and yesterday Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi announced that Israel has agreed to lift its objections to the work conducted by the Waqf at Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

While Israel prevents the Islamic committee from doing restoration work and often arrests or expels the officials and workers and prevent them from reaching the mosque, its various crews are deeply involved in illegal excavations and other works under the Islamic site, which the Waqf department warns would threaten the foundations and endanger the historic mosques in the occupied holy city.

M.K.