Hamas official abroad Khaled Mashal said that "the Al-Aqsa Mosque is at a crossroads. Israel is working to establish a new religious, administrative and spatial reality in it." According to him, Israel is working to deepen the division in time and space in the compound, to harm the role of the Islamic Waqf and to impose Israeli management on the mosque. Mashal claimed that this is a "comprehensive process to change the identity of Al-Aqsa and to take control of it," and not just "breaches and isolated attacks."