Israeli authorities seized parts of occupied East Jerusalem’s ancient Bab al-Rahmeh cemetery located along the east wall of the Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

Backed by large numbers of Israeli police the Israeli Nature Authority forced their way in and set up barbed wire around large areas of the Muslim cemetery on September 1.

Mustafa Abu Zahra, head of the committee for the preservation of Islamic cemeteries in Jerusalem, said that the Israeli authorities sought to transform the cemetery into a “national park” for Israeli Jews.

Over 1,400 years old, Bab Al-Rahma Muslim cemetery contains a number of graves of the companions of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and for those who died during the time of Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi.

The cemetery has two plaques indicating that two companions of Islam’s Prophet, namely Shaddad bin Aws and Ubadah Ibn al-Samit, are buried here.