Palestinian presidency warns of escalating ‘religious conflict’ over Al-Aqsa Mosque

The presidency of the Palestinian Authority has warned of an intensifying danger from what it calls a religious war by Israeli forces and settlers against Al-Aqsa Mosque and other holy sites. “Systematic attacks have crossed all red lines and could ignite a wider religious conflict with serious consequences for the region and the world,” it said in a statement reported by the Wafa news agency. Attempts to set fire to a mosque in the town of Beita, northwest of Nablus, and spray racist slogans on its walls coincided with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s “storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque”, the statement noted.