Israeli police temporarily detained the imam of Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque for praying for the slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
Police officers took the 85-year-old Islamic cleric Ekrima Sabri away for a few hours after Friday prayers, his lawyer said. Israeli media reported that the police were investigating whether Sabri had incited violence during the prayers.
Haniyeh, the Qatar-based leader of the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas, died in a targetted killing on Wednesday during a visit to Tehran. Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel, which in turn has not commented.
In the mosques of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian preachers commemorated Haniyeh in their Friday prayers.
According to reports, Sabri said that the residents of Jerusalem would pray to God to grant the “martyr” his mercy.
“We pray for him compassion and paradise,” he is reported to have said. Sabri also heads the Palestinian Supreme Islamic Council.
Hamas had called on Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to organize a “Day of Rage” in the form of protest marches following Friday prayers. According to reports from residents, the call was largely ineffective.
The al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount 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 together with the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967. The Muslim sites are formally administered by a Jordanian foundation, but Israel controls access, which it repeatedly restricts.
Haniyeh was buried on Friday in the Qatari capital Doha, where he had last lived in exile.
