The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs announced that Israeli authorities had decided to completely close the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to Muslim worshippers and visitors, beginning after Friday prayers and continuing until Saturday night, citing Jewish holidays and allowing incursions by Israeli settlers.
In a statement issued on Friday, the ministry said that preventing worshippers and Awqaf employees from entering the mosque, as well as banning the call to prayer during the closure, constituted a blatant violation of freedom of worship and a serious infringement on the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is an exclusively Islamic religious endowment.
The ministry described the measures as an apparent attempt to impose a division of the mosque by time and space.
It added that these systematic violations and tightened restrictions around Hebron’s Old City were part of a policy aimed at Judaizing Islamic holy sites. The ministry called on international and human rights organizations to intervene urgently and pressure Israeli authorities to end these violations and protect Islamic holy sites.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces tightened military restrictions and closed off parts of Hebron’s Old City on Friday evening.
Activist Aref Jaber, a resident of Jaber neighborhood near the Ibrahimi Mosque, said Israeli forces had closed several neighborhoods in the Old City, including Jaber, Salaymeh, Wadi al-Nasara, Wadi al-Hussein and Tel Rumeida, among others.
He added that Israeli forces had reinforced their presence throughout the Old City and at military checkpoints between neighborhoods, preventing residents from entering or leaving their homes under the pretext of Jewish holidays and the arrival of settlers at the Ibrahimi Mosque.
The Old City has been under a severe siege for years, worsening the hardships faced by residents, who are allowed to enter and leave their homes only during limited hours.
