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Palestine slams Israel settlement project around Ibrahimi Mosque

August 12, 2021 at 11:24 am

Israeli forces block Palestinian protesters during a demonstration in memory of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on February 26, 2021. [HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images]

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh yesterday condemned Israel’s plans to expropriate Palestinian lands and expand Jewish settlements around the Ibrahimi Mosque in occupied Hebron, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Shtayyeh called on “the international community to take urgent action to stop these violations and stop work at the Ibrahimi Mosque.”

He also called on international human rights organisations and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to condemn the Israeli violations since the mosque is listed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

In May 2020, the then Israeli Defence Minister and current Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, issued an expropriation order for a portion of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to allow occupation authorities to build a corridor and an elevator to facilitate settler access to the mosque.

Work on the project began on Sunday.

READ: Ibrahimi Mosque is targeted by settlers, but for the PA and Israel it is business as usual