HEBRON, Wednesday, March 17, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers today leveled an area opposite to the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Hebron, according to the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee (HRC).

HRC said that Israeli settlers razed the interior of an old house belonging to the Idris family, located opposite to the resting area of the Ibrahimi Mosque and within an area deemed a closed military zone, where HRC staff are denied access to carry out restoration works.

The house was handed over by the Israeli occupation authorities to settlers.

Twenty two years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire at Palestinian Muslim worshippers, killing 29. Four Palestinians were killed on the same day in the clashes that broke out around the Mosque in response to the massacre.

In the aftermath, the mosque, known to Jews as Tomb of the Patriarchs, was divided in two, with the larger part turned into a synagogue while heavy scrutiny was imposed on the Palestinians and areas closed completely to them, including an important market and the main street, Shuhada Street.

The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Israel has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.

K.F.