(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Israeli troops closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank Friday, denying access by Muslim worshippers, while thousands of settlers and other Jewish extremists flocked to the site for a Jewish holiday.
Israeli media reported that around 4,000 Jews had converged on the holy site as part of this weekend's celebrations of the Chayei Sarah, according to the Torah.
Soldiers had earlier taken over houses around the Mosque and blocked roads into Hebron, using concrete cubes and mounds of earth to prevent passage as large numbers of troops were deployed to the city's neighbourhoods. The stepped-up security followed a shooting attack in Hebron in which two settlers were injured.
Palestinian religious affairs minister Yousef Deis said in a statement that the occupation forces had sealed off the mosque to Palestinian worshippers at 3 p.m Friday and that the closure will run until 9 p.m Saturday.
"These Israeli measures that target the houses of worship are a racist and gross assault against heavenly religions and a violation of the freedom of worship that are guaranteed by the international law", he said, stressing that the Ibrahimi Mosque is a purely Islamic holy site and that all Israeli measures are null and void.
It was not the first time that Israel had declared the mosque off limits to Muslim worshippers, ne said, adding that the move was "one in a chain of ongoing aggressions", including barring the call to prayers from the mosque's minarets and allowing settlers to breach its sanctity.
The occupying authority, Deis said, is seeking to impose its control of the mosque by the force of arms and turn it into a synagogue. He urged the international community to exert pressure on Israel to stop the violations against Muslim shrines in Palestine.
Israel has divided the mosque and repeatedly orders its closure since the 1994 massacre when an armed settler gunned down dozens of Muslim believers at dawn prayers.
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