GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Senior Hamas official Abdul-Rahman Shadeed has described far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s desecration of the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil City on Tuesday as “another serious escalation against the Islamic holy sites” in Palestine.
In a statement on Tuesday, Shadeed said that Israeli leaders’ desecration of the Islamic holy sites is “part of the escalating war of extermination against the Palestinians and their sacred places.”
The Hamas official accused the Israeli occupation government of exploiting Jewish holidays and events to escalate its violations against the Islamic holy sites and advance settlement plans.
He underscored the importance of protecting the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank, urging the resistance to continue responding to Israeli violations.
Dozens of extremist Jewish settlers, including Ben Gvir, defiled the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.
The Israeli occupation army closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshipers and allowed Ben Gvir and groups of settlers to violate it to celebrate the Jewish Passover occasion on its premises, according to local officials.
The Israeli army also closed several neighborhoods in the Old City and prevented Palestinian citizens from leaving their homes and opening their businesses, while settlers provocatively toured the city’s streets and alleys.
