Palestine decries Israel’s closure of West Bank mosque

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – The Palestinian minister of Awqaf and religious affairs has condemned Israel’s closure of the Ibrahim Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron for Jewish holidays.

“Israeli authorities have ordered the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims on Wednesday and Thursday,” Yousef Adeis said in a statement on Wednesday.

He called on UNESCO and human rights groups to stand up to their obligations to protect the heritage, culture and civilization of the Palestinian people.

The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in Hebron’s Old City district, which is home to some 160,000 Palestinians and about 500 Jewish settlers, with the latter living in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Revered by both Muslims and Jews, the mosque complex is believed to mark the burial sites of the prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American Jewish settler, gunned down 29 Palestinian Muslims as they prayed at the mosque before being killed himself.

Since then, the mosque has been divided into a Muslim section (45 percent) and a Jewish section (55 percent).