Hamas PM, PLO condemn Pal refugee killings in Syria, Friday prayers скачать в хорошем качестве

Hamas PM, PLO condemn Pal refugee killings in Syria, Friday prayers

(3 Aug 2012) STORYLINE Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Prime Minister of Gaza, condemned the killing of 21 Palestinians in a refugee camp in Syria on Friday, after praying at a mosque in Gaza. "With anger and pain we express our condemnation of this massacre," he said. "We continue to ask that the Palestinian refugee camps be kept out of what is going on in Syria." Haniyeh's criticism was echoed by PLO executive committee member, Wasel Abu Youssef, after mortars rained down on a crowded marketplace in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, killing 21 people on Thursday evening. "Those Palestinians are guests there until we ensure their right of return to their country and the properties that they left behind, according to resolution 194," Abu Youssef said, referring to the UN resolution drawn after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. "We ask all the different parties not to drag the Palestinians into the ongoing fighting." The attack on Yarmouk camp came as the government battled rebel fighters in the nearby Damascus suburb of Tadamon. Clashes continued there on Friday and sounds of explosions from the neighbourhood could be heard as far as the mostly deserted Damascus downtown, with plumes of smoke seen rising into the sky. Meanwhile across Israel and the Palestinian territories Muslims attended mosques for the third Friday prayers of the holy month of Ramadan. At Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest Muslim site in the world, over 220 thousand worshippers gathered to pray. Thousands of Muslims entered Jerusalem through various checkpoints between the West Bank and Israel, making their way to the Old City of Jerusalem to worship at one of Islam's holiest sites during the holy month of Ramadan. Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank gathered in Ramallah to pray, while at the Qalandiya checkpoint connecting the West Bank to Jerusalem, worshippers prayed while Israeli soldiers stood by. During the holy month observant Muslims are expected to fast from sunrise to sundown to focus on spiritual reflection. The U.N. agency running Palestinian camps confirmed that at least 20 people had died in the shelling of Yarmouk. The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights, which first reported the deaths, said the mortars hit as shoppers were buying food for the evening meal. The activists with the group would not speculate on who was firing. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...