Israel bars Ibrahimi Mosque director from entering holy site for 15 days

Israeli forces have banned the director of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil from entering the holy Muslim site for more than two weeks, as the regime presses ahead with its merciless aggression against Palestinians and their sanctities.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Tuesday that Sheikh Moataz Abu Sneineh was barred from the Ibrahimi Mosque for 15 days after the military sealed off parts of the site locally administered by the Islamic Waqf (Endowment) organization.

“The mosque staff discovered that Israeli authorities had placed locks and chains on all internal room doors in the occupied section, including the call-to-prayer room and Waqf office,” Jamal Abu Aram, director of the al-Khalil Waqf department, told Anadolu.

“Later, one employee was banned from the mosque for 14 days,” he said. “Sheikh Moataz Abu Sneineh and another staff member were detained for over five hours before being handed 15-day expulsion orders.”

Abu Aram underlined that the ban was a continuation of Israel’s strategy “to dominate the mosque and strip the Waqf of authority over its sections.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf (Endowments) and Religious Affairs said in a statement that the locking of the rooms set “a dangerous precedent” aimed at undermining its sovereignty.

Quoting Abu Sneineh, the ministry asserted that all mosque shrines and corridors belong to the Islamic Waqf, which holds legal custody of their keys, condemning the locks as “a blatant and serious assault on the sanctity of these inviolable places.”

The restriction follows the Israeli regime’s refusal in the last fasting month of Ramadan to open all mosque corridors to worshipers during key occasions like Eid al-Fitr, Laylat al-Qadr and Fridays as a break with tradition, according to the ministry’s earlier statements.

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Since 1994, after an Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinian worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque, the illegal entity has divided the site, allotting 63%—including the call-to-prayer room—to Jews and 37% to Muslims.

The mosque remains under Israeli occupation, with about 400 Jewish settlers living in al-Khalil’s Old City, protected by 1,500 Israeli soldiers.

Apart from bans on worshipers in the West Bank, the Israeli regime has ratcheted up its onslaught on Palestinians in the occupied territory since October 7, 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

Since then, at least 944 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 7,000 others injured, while over 15,800 detained in the attacks by the Israeli forces and settlers across the West Bank.

The raids have so far uprooted at least 40,000 people, the largest displacement since the 1967 war that led to the Israeli occupation of the territory, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

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