2 Israeli border police wounded by grenade shrapnel near Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron

By Zein Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Two Israeli border police officers were wounded late Monday by grenade shrapnel near Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron city in the occupied West Bank.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily said a female soldier was transferred to a nearby hospital, while the other officer received treatment onsite.

The newspaper noted that an investigation has been opened into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Muslims attach great importance to Al-Ibrahimi Mosque, as they believe it was built above the tomb of Prophet Ibrahim (Prophet Abraham).

Following the massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers in 1994 inside the mosque by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, Israeli authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided in July 2017 to include the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque and the old city of Hebron on its World Heritage List.

Hebron is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 500 Jewish settlers. The latter live in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied Palestinian territories amid a deadly Israeli offensive that has killed nearly 40,000 people in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 last year.

More than 623 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar