Israeli security forces on Friday arrested the top cleric of the Al Aqsa mosque, the third most sacred religious site for Muslims around the world, for mourning the death of Hamas' political bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh.
Lawyers said Israeli police on Friday arrested 85-year-old Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and current head of its Supreme Islamic Council, after he referred to Haniyeh as a "martyr" in his Friday sermon at the mosque in the Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Videos of the incident showed a hunched-over Sabri being led into a waiting car with Israeli police officers standing on guard.
Sabri's lawyer said that he was being held at the Al-Maskobiya (police compound) under investigation on suspicion of inciting terrorism because he mourned Ismail Haniyeh during the Friday sermon.
Haniyeh was killed in what is being claimed as an Israeli attack on the Hamas leader who was visiting Tehran for the inauguration of the new Iranian president. While official confirmation of the cause of death has yet to be released, Haniyeh was buried in Qatar on Friday.
This is not the first time that Sabri has been arrested for 'inciting terrorism'. In June, he was charged after he allegedly praised Palestinian gunmen who had killed four Israelis.
Earlier in the week, Israel had also claimed to have killed Al Qassam Brigades chief Mohammed Al Deif in a strike in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. The strike in which Deif was killed also killed some 90 Palestinians.