Settlers Hold Concert in Ibrahimi Mosque After Palestinian Worshippers Expelled
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Israeli army temporarily closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Palestinian worshippers, enabling thousands of Israeli settlers to hold a concert and perform religious rituals at the site in Hebron (al-Khalil), a city in the West Bank.
The Israeli military permitted settlers to move musical instruments into the mosque, according to video footage shared on social media.
The footage, likely recorded by an Israeli settler or soldier, also shows soldiers assisting in bringing materials into the worship site.
Moataz Abu Sneineh, the mosque director, condemned the event, stating that the settlers' concert in the mosque’s courtyards constituted "a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims."
“These practices and violations fall within the framework of exchanging roles with the colonists,” Abu Sneineh told the official news agency Wafa.
He added that the Israeli forces allowed settlers to bring in musical instruments and loudspeakers to assert control over the mosque, while Palestinians are denied the ability to bring necessary supplies for the mosque's maintenance and restoration.
According to Wafa, the mosque was reopened to Palestinian worshippers early Tuesday.
The Ibrahimi Mosque holds significant religious importance for Muslims, as it is believed to be built above the tomb of the Prophet Ibrahim (Prophet Abraham).
In 1994, following the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers.
In July 2017, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee included the Ibrahimi Mosque and the old city of Hebron on its World Heritage List.
Hebron is home to around 220,000 Palestinians and about 500 Israeli settlers who live in Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
Tensions have escalated across the occupied West Bank amid an ongoing Israeli offensive that has killed nearly 40,800 people in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 last year.
Since then, at least 682 people have been killed and over 5,700 others injured by Israeli fire in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion issued on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Al-Quds.