Israel settlers celebrate Hanukkah inside Ibrahimi Mosque

Palestinians expressed concerns after groups of Israeli settlers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque yesterday and lit menorahs inside its corridors to celebrate Hanukkah under the protection of occupation forces.

The Director of the Hebron Endowment, Nidal Al-Jabari, said that Israeli authorities have been working on Judaising the Ibrahimi Mosque, which is located in the centre of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, through continued excavations.

He added that Israel is deliberately changing the historical features of the area outside the mosque by installing an elevator to facilitate settler incursions, in addition to repeatedly preventing the Muslim call to prayer from the mosque.

The Director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Ghassan Al-Rajabi, said that the lighting of the Hanukkah candle on the first day of the Festival of Lights in the vicinity of the mosque is a dangerous escalation that comes in the context of the ongoing settler violations.

He added that frequent incursions by Israeli settlers constitute an attempt to control the Ibrahimi Mosque completely.

READ: Israel occupation declares Hebron ‘closed military zone’ to prevent human rights organisations tour