On Tuesday, the far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir , along with hundreds of settlers, stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque compound in the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
Hot Topics
Indonesian volcanoes continue to erupt, raising fears of damage to agriculture
Mouthwash: A common habit with limited benefits and health concerns
Ben-Gvir’s storming of the Ibrahimi Mosque came a day after he stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem on the occasion of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which began on Sunday and continues until Saturday.
Israeli Channel 14 broadcast footage showing Ben-Gvir storming the Ibrahimi Mosque.
In an interview with the channel during the raid, Ben Gvir, a settler in Hebron for years, said: “When I arrive at the Ibrahimi Mosque, I draw energy that drives me to sing and rejoice,” as he put it.
Hundreds of settlers appeared in the background of the interview.
On Monday, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers during the period of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Palestinian Ministry of Religious Endowments and Affairs said the closure includes preventing the performance of prayers and the raising of the call to prayer in the sanctuary, in preparation for “settlers to seize it and desecrate it” during the Jewish holidays.
The ministry stressed that these practices constitute a “blatant attack” on the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and an infringement on the freedom of worship and the right of Muslims to practice their religious rites, emphasizing that the mosque is “purely an Islamic endowment.”
She warned of the danger of the continuation of Israeli measures and attempts to impose a temporal and spatial division of the mosque.
On the other hand, on Tuesday, Israeli settlers stormed the Jaryut roundabout in the town of Beitunia, west of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, under the protection of the Israeli army forces, and attacked Palestinian vehicles in the area.
Local sources reported that large numbers of settler vehicles stormed the Jaryut road west of Ramallah, under the protection of army forces, while settlers attacked a number of passing Palestinian vehicles and threw stones at some of them.
She added that the settlers were stationed at the Jaryut roundabout, located within the boundaries of the town of Beitunia, and raised Israeli flags, in preparation for performing Talmudic prayers in Ein Jaryut, amid gunfire from Israeli army soldiers in the area.
This is the first ever incursion by settlers into the town of Beitunia.
The raid coincides with a series of other raids in the West Bank during the Jewish holidays.
The Jewish holidays began with the Hebrew New Year on September 12 and 13, followed by Yom Kippur on September 21 and 22, and continue with Sukkot between September 26 and October 2, culminating in the completion of the Torah on October 3.
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the Old City of Hebron, which is under full Israeli occupation, where about 400 settlers live, guarded by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
In 1994, Israel divided the mosque into 63 percent for Jews and 37 percent for Muslims, following a massacre committed by a Jewish settler that resulted in the martyrdom of 29 Palestinian worshippers.
According to unilateral Israeli arrangements, the mosque is completely closed to Muslims for 10 days a year, which are Jewish religious occasions, and is also completely closed to Jews for 10 similar days, which are Islamic religious occasions.
But since the genocide that Israel has been committing in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, Israel has not committed to fully opening it to Muslims on their occasions.
Israel was established in 1948 on lands occupied by armed Zionist gangs who committed massacres and displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians. It then occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories and refuses to withdraw and allow the establishment of a Palestinian state as stipulated in UN resolutions.
Tags:
asiawest
