PA reveals 180 Israeli soldiers raided Ibrahimi Mosque last month

Israeli forces attack with tear gas canisters and sound bombs towards thousands of Palestinians, gathered for performing Friday prayer, at the al-Haram al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, West Bank on August 13, 2021 [Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) said on Wednesday that 180 Israeli occupation soldiers raided the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in September. Israeli soldiers are deployed in Hebron to protect a small group of illegal Jewish settlers in the Palestinian city.

The mosque has been physically and temporally divided by the Israel occupation authorities between Muslims and Jews ever since the massacre of Palestinian worshippers by an extremist Jewish settler from the US on 25 February 1994. Twenty-nine Muslims were killed in the attack as they were praying, and dozens more were wounded.

The ministry added that the Israeli occupation authorities closed the mosque to Muslims from noon on Tuesday until Wednesday at midnight to make way for illegal settlers to “desecrate” it during the current Jewish holiday.

WATCH: Israeli settlers sing and dance in Ibrahimi Mosque

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