Israel shuts Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque for Jewish holidays

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Israeli authorities have shut the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to Palestinian Muslims Wednesday for four days to allow illegal settlers to celebrate two Jewish holidays.

“Israeli occupation authorities closed the sacred precincts of the mosque on Wednesday to celebrate the Sukkot and Yom Kippur holidays,” Director of the Ibrahimi Mosque Moataz Abu Sneineh, informed.

He said the sacred Muslim site, however, will be open to Israeli settlers to perform Talmudic rituals and organize celebrations.

“The mosque will remain closed (to Palestinian worshippers) until Saturday evening,” he added.

Settlers will mark Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday, as of Thursday evening.

The Ibrahimi Mosque, which is historic and sacred to Muslims all over the world, is located in the old city of Hebron. It is under Israeli control, with hundreds of illegal settlers living in the area, well-guarded by Israeli soldiers who set their sights on the sacred Muslim site.

Since 1994, following a massacre by an illegal settler that resulted in the killing of 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers, Israel has divided the mosque, allocating 63% of the space to Jewish worshipers and only 37% to Muslims.

Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank amid the ongoing genocidal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed nearly 42,000 Palestinian lives, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year.

According to Palestinian sources, at least 745 Palestinians have been killed, and nearly 6,200 injured in the occupied territory during the same period.

The situation continues to escalate despite a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.