Israeli police have temporarily arrested the imam of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for praying for slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Police officers took 85-year-old Muslim cleric Ekrima Sabri away for a few hours after Friday prayers, his lawyer said. Israeli media reported that police were investigating whether Sabri had incited violence during the prayer.
Haniyeh, the Qatar-based leader of the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, died Wednesday in a targeted killing while visiting Tehran. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel, which has declined to comment.
In mosques in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian preachers remembered Haniyeh during their Friday prayers.
According to reports, Sabri said that Jerusalem residents would pray to God for mercy on the “martyr”.
“We pray for him compassion and paradise,” he is reported to have said. Sabri is also head of the Palestinian Supreme Islamic Council.
Hamas had called on Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to stage a “Day of Rage” in the form of protest marches after Friday prayers. According to reports from residents, the call was largely ineffective.
The al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is considered the third most important shrine in Islam. It is known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Israel took over the Temple Mount complex along with the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967. The Islamic sites are formally administered by a Jordanian foundation, but Israel controls access, which it has repeatedly restricted.
Haniyeh was buried on Friday in the Qatari capital Doha, where he previously lived in exile.
