Collapse at Al-Asa Mosque

Posted by Hamza

Feb 18

On Friday 15 February, there were reports from the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem that a 2 meter long and 1.5 meter wide crater had appeared within the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, as the ground beneath it caved in.

The landslide occurred near Al-Silsila (Chain) Gate and Qatibai Water Fountain at the mosque’s western side.

Palestinians have blamed Israel’s intermittent digging and tunnelling for the collapse. In February, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the wooden bridge leading to Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Al-Maghariba Gate and two underground rooms, sparking widespread protests.

At the time, archaeologists warned that levelling the mound on which the wooden bridge was built would threaten the foundation of Al-Aqsa Mosque and open the way for more Israeli excavations. Wide-spread tunnelling and digging has occurred under the sacred Al-Aqsa site since the 1990’s, and continues. There have been repeated warnings about the results of this digging on the architectural integrity of the Al-Aqsa compound.

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