Sheikh Khatib made the remarks during a televised interview on Friday with Al-Quds satellite channel about the recent events at the Aqsa Mosque and its exposure to near daily desecration by Zionist settlers and regime forces.

Sheikh Khatib said that serious escalation and tension might again take place on April 14, the eve of the Passover festival, at the Aqsa Mosque compound, but he stressed that the Israeli restrictions that would be imposed during the days of the Jewish festival would not prevent the Palestinians from defending their historic mosque.

"The Zionist foundation should realize that our people and nation would never allow the Aqsa Mosque to be a temple," the Islamic Movement official underlined. "Our people is ready and on alert to fend off that evilness."

"If the Arab regimes and the Palestinian Authority drift away from the national, Arab and Islamic consensus, we like to tell them that our people has a word to say and a position to show, and they will never give up Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque," Sheikh Khatib further emphasized.

In recent months, Israeli forces and settlers have stepped up their attacks on the mosque. This has led to violent confrontations between the two sides.

Earlier in the month, Israeli forces stormed the holy site in East al-Quds during Friday prayers. Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets and stun grenades at the people who were praying at the mosque. At least 20 people, including children, were wounded in the violence.

Also on Tuesday, Knesset (the Israeli parliament) discussed a plan to annex the site, but the debate did not result in a vote or any practical measures.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Wednesday condemned the debate as a "dangerous escalation," calling it part of Israel's goal to "Judaize Jerusalem".

The Palestinian Authority and the resistance movement Hamas have also warned against Israeli plans to impose “sovereignty” on the al-Aqsa Mosque.

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