'Israel planning to destroy al Aksa'

The armed wing of Fatah, the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, on Tuesday called on the Palestinian Authority to give back the weapons it had confiscated from the group’s gunmen so that they could participate in the “Jerusalem Intifada.” The call came as both the PA and Hamas continued to accuse Israel of planning to destroy the mosques on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

“We call on all the Palestinian security services in the West Bank to release all Palestinian fighters from prison and to give them back their weapons so that they can join their people in defending Jerusalem against Israeli aggression,” the armed group, which was supposed to have been dismantled years ago in line with understandings between the PA and the US, said in a leaflet distributed in Ramallah.

Under the terms of the understandings reached about three years ago, hundreds of members of the Aksa Martyrs Brigades handed over their weapons to the PA in return for promises that Israel would stop pursuing them and that they would be recruited as policemen in the various security forces.

Israel has since then pardoned dozens of Fatah gunmen who agreed to turn over their weapons and refrain from involvement in terror activities.

This was the first time since then that the Fatah group had called on the PA to return the weapons so that its gunmen could resume armed attacks on Israel.