Talking to Sky News satellite channel, Meshaal stated that Netanyahu and his government were to blame for the growing tension in Jerusalem because of his persistence in his racist policies and settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories as well as his support for the Jews' desecration of the Aqsa Mosque, PIC reported Friday.

“Netanyahu is playing with fire when he allows members of his government, the Knesset, and the extremists to repeatedly storm the al-Aqsa Mosque - that’s dangerous,” Hamas Political Bureau Chief Khaled Meshaal said.

 Meshaal expressed his belief that the tense situation would not subside until all Israeli measures and settlers' break-ins at the Aqsa Mosque ends, warning that the situation tends to escalate as a result of the Israeli intransigence.

The Hamas official underscored that the Palestinian people had lost hope of any possibility for reaching a political solution to the conflict with the Israeli regime and yearn for liberation from the occupation forever.

Over the past weeks, the al-Aqsa Mosque has been the scene of clashes between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli settlers and troops.

The al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage, a Palestinian non-governmental organization, has said in a recent report that nearly 14,000 Israelis, most of them extremist settlers, have forced their way into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds since the beginning of 2014.

Israel has over the past decades tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

The al-Aqsa compound, which lies in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds, is a flashpoint.The mosque is Islam’s third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.