Alwaght- Hundreds of extremist Zionists settlers escorted by Israeli regime troops over the weekend stormed and desecrated the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the southern West Bank province of al-Khalil.
The Israeli regime's army has issued a statement boasting that the number of Zionist settlers who defiled the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Jewish Neighborhood has seen a swift upsurge from recent years.
Director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Hefdhi Abu Sneineh, said the break-in represents a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the site and makes part of Israeli attempts to impose a new fait accompli in the area.
At the same time, the occupation forces closed off the Beer Sheba street, in al-Khalil, to allow Israeli settlers to march to the so-called Atna'el bin Kannaz shrine.
The Israeli occupation authorities often shut the doors of the Ibrahimi Mosque before the Muslim worshipers under the recommendations of the Shamgar Commission, formed following the notorious Israeli massacre at the site in 1994 to temporally divide the mosque.
In early July, UNESCO registered the Old City of al-Khalil and the Ibrahimi Mosque on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The listing irked the regime in Tel Aviv, which had reportedly been involved in a campaign to thwart the UNESCO vote.
The Ibrahimi Mosque, one of the key holy sites in the Muslim world and it is the third site registered under “Palestine” since the UNESCO recognized it as a member state in 2011.
According to Palestine’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the old city of al-Khalil urgently needed protection from “assaults that harm the exceptional international value of the place.”
