Israeli authorities have stripped the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality of administrative powers over the Ibrahimi Mosque and transferred them to a settler religious council, according to a report Tuesday by the Israel Hayom daily.
That division followed the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers.
In a statement issued Feb. 26, the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs reiterated that the Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Cave of Machpelah, is “an exclusive Islamic endowment” and condemned Israeli efforts to transform the mosque into a Jewish synagogue.
The mosque is located in Hebron’s Old City in an area under full Israeli control where roughly 400 illegal settlers live under the protection of around 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
