Israel closes Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron for Sukkot

By Qais Abu Samra

HEBRON, Palestine (AA) – Israeli authorities on Wednesday closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to mark the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, according to a Palestinian official.

“Israel shut the mosque to Muslim worshippers for two days due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot,” Nidal al-Jabari, the director of the Waqf Department in Hebron, told Anadolu Agency.

He said the site was opened to Israeli settlers to mark the Sukkot, a week-long festival that began on Monday.

"The [Ibrahimi] Mosque is a purely Islamic site and Jews have no right to it,” al-Jabari said.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in Hebron's Old City area which is under the Israeli army control, where nearly 400 Israeli settlers live and are guarded by 1500 Israeli soldiers.

After the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers inside the mosque by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers.

UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided in July 2017 to include the Ibrahimi Mosque and the old city of Hebron on its World Heritage List.

Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 400 Jewish settlers. The latter live in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

* Writing by Ahmed Asmar