(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Israeli authorities prevented the Muslim call for prayer 53 times during May in the Ibrahimi mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to a Palestinian official.
Zaid Al-Jabari, director of the Muslim Waqf (Trust) in Hebron, told WAFA that the Israeli occupation authorities did not allow the call for prayers, which is done five times a day, from the Ibrahimi mosque minaret on claims it annoys the Israeli settlers who live in the area.
Around 400 Jewish settlers live in a heavily fortified and well guarded enclave in the heart of Hebron’s old city among more than 30,000 Palestinian Muslims. The settlers live in Palestinian-owned buildings Israel had seized since the occupation in 1967 and turned them into homes for Jewish settlers.
The Ibrahimi mosque, which once was a Muslim holy site, was also later divided and sections of it were turned into a Jewish synagogue.
Jabari denounced what he described as “arbitrary measures that affect houses of worship,' considering them “an encroachment on religion and freedom of worship guaranteed by international law.”
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