Al Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s holiest sites, faces an alarming threat as Israeli excavation works continue beneath and around its southern and western walls. Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, the mosque’s Imam and Head of Jerusalem’s Islamic Higher Council, warned that parts of the ancient structure are now literally “hanging in the air” after soil was removed from beneath its foundations. Cracks have begun to appear, and fears are mounting that the centuries-old site could suffer irreversible damage.

The Sheikh described the excavations as deliberate and dangerous, accusing the Israeli authorities of seeking to undermine the mosque’s physical integrity as part of a wider effort to alter Jerusalem’s historical and religious landscape. He cautioned that the coming winter rains could worsen the situation, with water seeping into newly exposed cavities and destabilising the already weakened ground. Such a collapse, he warned, would not be accidental but the result of years of reckless digging and disregard for warnings from engineers and religious leaders alike.

In Jerusalem, each stone of Al Aqsa carries deep spiritual and cultural meaning. The ongoing works threaten not only the mosque’s structure but the collective identity of a people for whom Al Aqsa stands as a symbol of faith and endurance. Sheikh Sabri appealed to Arab and Muslim nations to intervene before the damage becomes irreversible, urging immediate diplomatic and technical action to safeguard the site. His plea underscores a growing fear that what is being lost in the silence of excavations is far more than architecture, it is history itself, being slowly erased beneath the ground.