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The Palestinian minister of Awqaf and religious affairs has condemned Israel’s closure of the Ibrahim Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron for Jewish holidays.
“Israeli authorities have ordered the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims on Wednesday and Thursday,” Yousef Adeis said in a statement on Wednesday.
He called on UNESCO and human rights groups to stand up to their obligations to protect the heritage, culture and civilization of the Palestinian people.
Israel prohibited the Muslim call to prayer 298 times in the first half of this year at a historical mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron
Israel banned call to prayer 298 times at key mosque
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in Hebron’s Old City district, which is home to some 160,000 Palestinians and about 500 Jewish settlers, with the latter living in a series of Jewish-only enclaves heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
An Israeli minister said his government has rejected an EU plan to link the Gaza Strip with the West Bank, according to Israeli media on Wednesday."I made it clear that Gaza will not be linked to Judea and Samaria (the Jewish designation of the West Bank),” Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz told Israel Broadcasting Corporation.“Their plan will remain on paper and they are completely rejected," he said.Israeli media said the EU had prepared a plan for transportation in the West Bank, including Area C, which constitutes about 60 percent of the occupied territory, which is under full Israeli civil and security control.The plan includes “the establishment of an airport, a port and a railway to link the Gaza Strip with the West Bank", the media said.The EU did not officially inform the Israeli government of the plan.Katz, meanwhile, proposed “shifting the full responsibility over the Gaza Strip to the international community, while keeping Israel's security control on port”.Katz has been talking for years now about creating an artificial island off Gaza coast to allow imports and exports to reach the besieged Palestinian territory.Palestinians insist on linking the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in any final peace agreement with Israel that leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Israel rejects EU plan to link Gaza and West Bank
Revered by both Muslims and Jews, the mosque complex is believed to mark the burial sites of the prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In 1994, Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American Jewish settler, gunned down 29 Palestinian Muslims as they prayed at the mosque before being killed himself.
Since then, the mosque has been divided into a Muslim section (45 percent) and a Jewish section (55 percent).