Israel: Ibrahimi Mosque only open to Jews

Israeli occupation forces are to close the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers for 24 hours starting this evening in preparation for a Jewish holiday.

Muslim worshippers will be banned from entering the site in occupied Hebron from 10pm tonight until the same time tomorrow. The Muslim call to prayer will also be banned during this period.

Fatah said the closures is a crime against the site and against the Palestinian people and their right to access their holy places, it is also a violation of international conventions, the movement added.

READ: Israel banned call to prayer 298 times at key mosque

A member and official spokesperson of the Fatah Civil Revolutionary Council, Osama Al-Qawasmi, urged Palestinians to head to the Ibrahimi mosque on Friday to pray and make the Palestinian presence known.

Al-Qawasmi stressed, in a statement, that the holy site is “a purely Islamic site and Jews have no right to it.”

He also called upon the international community to act urgently to stop Israel’s on-going crimes and racism against defenceless Palestinians.

UNESCO last year designation of the Ibrahimi Mosque, a site which is stormed regularly by illegal Israeli settlers, as a Palestinian World Heritage Site under threat from Israel.

In response, Israel and the US cut funding to the UN body on multiple occasions, accusing it of “anti-Semitism”.