HEBRON, June 6, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities refused on Friday, which marks the first days of Eid al-Adha, to hand over the Ibrahimi Mosque to Awqaf Department, according to an official.
Munjed al-Ja‘bari, Acting Director-General of the Awqaf Department in Hebron, said that the occupation forces refused not only to hand over the holy site for the department, but also to open the eastern gate of the site to allow Muslims full access to all parts of the site.
He added that the department refused to assume partial responsibility for some sections of the site, and affirmed that any derogation of the rights of Palestinians and Muslims to the site would be unacceptable.
He called on the international community to exert pressure on the occupation authorities to halt their aggressive practices, prohibitions, and restrictions on the site that derogate from the rights of the Palestinian people. He warned that such Israeli practices and restrictions were intended to Judaize the site and transform it into a synagogue.
The occupation authorities allow Palestinians and Muslims to access all parts of the site only for 10 days a year, including Fridays in Ramadan.
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 about 1,500 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.
Thirty one 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 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.
K.F.
