Israel bans Palestinians from Friday prayers at West Bank mosque

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli army prevented Palestinians in Hebron in the southern West Bank from performing weekly Friday prayers and continued to close the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshipers, leaving it open only to illegal Israeli settlers for the third time. consecutive day.

“Israeli soldiers prevented us from entering the mosque to perform Friday prayers, so we prayed at one of the surrounding checkpoints,” Ghassan Al-Rajabi, director of the Hebron Foundations, told Reuters. Anadolu.

“About a thousand Palestinians performed Friday prayers at a closed military checkpoint west of the mosque,” ​​he added.

According to Al-Rajabi, dozens of Palestinians were refused entry to the mosque on Friday morning, forcing them to pray at checkpoints surrounding it.

He explained that Israeli authorities closed the mosque for four days, citing Jewish holidays, and that the closure was expected to end Saturday evening.

Al-Rajabi accused Israel of trying to “alter the Palestinian demographics around the mosque, increase the presence of illegal Israeli settlers and simultaneously prevent the call to prayer (Adhan) and prayers.”

He stressed that “the Israeli occupation (authorities) only recognizes religious illegal Israeli settlers, denying the same to Palestinians.”

On Wednesday, Mutaz Abu Sunaina, the mosque’s director, told Anadolu that “Israeli authorities started the closure on Wednesday due to the holidays of Sukkot and Yom Kippur.”

He noted that during such closures, “the entire mosque is open to illegal settlers, where they hold noisy celebrations and Talmudic prayers.”

He added that “the closure will continue until Saturday evening”.

Yom Kippur celebrations began Thursday evening, during which illegal Israeli settlers increased their incursions into Islamic and historical sites, such as the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the Israeli-controlled Old City of Hebron and is home to approximately 400 illegal Israeli settlers protected by 1,500 Israeli soldiers and numerous military checkpoints.

Following a massacre by an Israeli settler in 1994 that killed 29 Palestinians, Israel divided the mosque, allocating 63% to Jews and 37% to Muslims, with the Adhan (call to prayer) hall in the Jewish section.

*Written by Mohammad Sio

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