By Awad Rajoub
RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - The Israeli army stormed the city of Hebron on Saturday, shutting down the Ibrahimi Mosque and preventing worshippers from entering, according to eyewitnesses and local authorities.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that Israeli forces raided the Wadi al-Hariya neighborhood, searching several homes. The incursion also targeted the Jabal Abu Rumman neighborhood, where soldiers and snipers were seen taking positions on rooftops of residential buildings, they added.
Sheikh Mutaz Abu Sneina, director of the Ibrahimi Mosque, reported that the mosque was closed at dawn on Saturday without prior notice. “The occupation forces closed the mosque from 4:00 a.m. without warning, preventing worshippers from entering,” Abu Sneina said.
The Israeli army confirmed the mosque’s closure in a statement on its account on X, formerly known as Twitter. It cited security concerns following a "sabotage operation" late Friday in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and Karmei Tzur settlement as the reason for intensified inspections and security checks for both Palestinian and Israeli worshippers. The army added that the mosque was briefly closed "for security reasons" and later reopened under strict security measures.
The raid and mosque closure came just hours after three Israeli officers, including a brigade commander, were injured in a car bomb explosion at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank. The explosion coincided with an attack in the nearby Karmei Tzur settlement.
Tensions have been high across the occupied West Bank amid an ongoing Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has claimed more than 40,600 Palestinian lives, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year. According to Palestinian sources, at least 674 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 5,400 injured, and over 10,300 arrested in the West Bank during the same period.
The situation continues to escalate following a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19, which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara