SAEDNEWS: Saudi security forces have detained an Iraqi university professor in the holy city of Mecca while he was paying tribute to the assassinated Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh during his Umrah pilgrimage.
According to SAEDNEWS, Online activists reported the arrest of Salman Dawood al-Sabawi in Saudi Arabia through posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Their updates included images of Sabawi holding a banner in the courtyard of the Masjid al-Haram, Islam's holiest site, which read in Arabic, “I dedicate this Umrah Hajj to the martyred Ismail Haniyeh.”
As news of Sabawi's detention spread, many social media users flocked to X, Facebook, and other platforms, calling for his immediate and unconditional release. Sabawi, a resident of Mosul in southern Iraq, was making a tribute to Haniyeh, who was killed alongside his bodyguard in an attack on July 31 while in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, along with other leaders of the Axis of Resistance.
In response to Haniyeh's assassination, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, issued a warning to the Israeli regime, vowing a "harsh response." He emphasized that avenging the Palestinian resistance leader’s death was a duty of the Islamic Republic, stating, “The criminal and terrorist Zionist regime martyred our dear guest in our homeland and left us bereaved, but it also set the stage for a harsh punishment for itself.”