In one of his first public statements, the new Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader has issued a statement claiming that the Israelis deliberately opened a dam in Eastern Gaza resulting in increased flooding during recent rains. In a statement posted on the Brotherhood’s English language website, Mohamed Badi said:
The Palestinian suffering seems to never end the with the shortage of food, medication, fuel and shelter. However they continue to stoically face their misfortune with head held high even remembering their fellow sufferers the most recent in Haiti and calling for their support and aid. In a new bout of aggression oppression and tyranny, the Israeli’s have opened the floodgates of one of its dams in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, flooding Palestinian houses and causing severe damage. The Israel authorities opened the dam’s floodgates without any warning or coordination with local authorities in Gaza, stunning the residents of the area where there has been heavy rain in the region over the past 24 hours. It seems the Israelis could not handle the huge amount of rainwater and decided to open the floodgates without prior warning. Since Gaza is located in a low-lying area and the elevation decreases on the way to the Mediterranean Sea, water gushed into the area, flooding two Palestinian villages and displacing a hundred Gazan families. This drives us to question the human conscience at a time when money is collected to shelter and protect animals while one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza are under siege for numerous years. The unfortunate Gazans are facing disaster after disaster while we silently observe. I ask where the Arab and Muslim conscience is as unfortunate men, women and children in Gaza suffer and continue to suffer. Time has come to move and take action supporting our brothers in Palestine before Allah the Almighty sends his angry wrath.
The local Israeli government authority in the area said it knew of no such dam in the area.
The Egyptian Brotherhood web site also carried another in an ongoing series of claims that Israeli excavations in the area of the Al-Aqsa mosque were placing the structure at risk of collapse.
The Islamic-Christian authority catering for Jerusalem and holy places warned that the Aqsa Mosque has sustained serious cracks and fissures in its walls that may lead to its collapse as a result of the ongoing excavations carried out by Israel underground. The authority said that these excavations also caused fissures in hundreds of Palestinian homes and real estate in the vicinity of the Mosque, adding that all tunnel excavations in Silwan neighborhood are heading towards the Aqsa Mosque. The authority pointed to the reoccurrence of cave-ins in many houses and streets, the latest of which happened on the street of Wadi Hilwa in Silwan neighborhood, near the Aqsa Mosque. It affirmed that at late hours every night, large Israeli trucks come to excavation sites to load up with rocks and dirt and then take it to a dumpsite in Alizariya town east of Jerusalem. In the same context, senior Hamas official and lawmaker Dr. Younis Al-Astal said Tuesday that the increase in subsidence incidents in the vicinity of the Aqsa Mosque indicates that the tunnel excavations carried out by Israel reached a serious level threatening the Mosque. Dr. Astal stressed that these excavations and Judaization activities in Jerusalem would not have been possible without the collusion of Mahmoud Abbas and his authority with Israel against the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. For his part, Hamas spokesman Hammad Al-Ruqub warned that any harm inflicted on the Aqsa Mosque would have serious repercussions on Israel and would trigger a new massive intifada. Spokesman Ruqub underlined that the successive cave-ins and the size of tunnels being established by Israel under the Aqsa Mosque and its environs authenticate the warnings made by organizations that follow up the developments in Jerusalem. He also said that Israel’s decisions to exile and imprison some prominent Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied land who defend the Aqsa Mosque such as Sheikh Ra’ed Salah and Sheikh Ekrema Sabri portend its bad faith towards the Mosque.”
The global Muslim Brotherhood frequently claims that Israel is conspiring against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.