Israel closes Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers for Jewish holidays
The ministry said the closure bars worshippers and Awqaf staff and bans the call to prayer, and it urged international bodies to intervene.
Israeli authorities have closed Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers and visitors until Saturday night, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said in a statement issued Friday.
The ministry said the closure begins after Friday prayers and is being imposed under the pretext of Jewish holidays, which it said would allow settlers to enter the site.
The ministry said the measures stop worshippers and Awqaf employees from entering the mosque and ban the call to prayer for the duration of the closure.
It described the steps as a flagrant violation of freedom of worship and an infringement on the mosque, which it said is an exclusively Islamic endowment.
The ministry said the closure amounts to an attempt to impose a temporal and spatial division on the site.
It said the restrictions are part of a wider pattern of systematic violations and tighter limits around Hebron's Old City.
The ministry said these actions form part of a policy aimed at Judaizing holy sites in the occupied West Bank.
It called on international and human rights organizations to intervene urgently and press Israeli authorities to halt the violations and protect Islamic holy sites.
The Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, stands in Hebron's Old City and is revered by both Muslims and Jews as the burial site of the biblical patriarch Abraham.
Since a 1994 attack at the site, Israel has divided the building into separate Jewish and Muslim sections, and access for Palestinians has often been restricted on Jewish holidays.