Israel transfers authority for Ibrahimi Mosque in West Bank to settler council: Report

JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

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.

Describing the move as a “historic and unprecedented change,” the newspaper said Israel's Civil Administration had reassigned authority over the holy site to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement, adjacent to Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

The report did not specify the scope of powers transferred but said the move aims to facilitate “structural changes” at the site.

It marks the first major shift in the status of the mosque since the 1994 recommendations of the Shamgar Commission, which divided access, allocating 63% of the site to Jewish worshippers and 37% to Muslims.

That division followed the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers.

According to the newspaper, the Civil Administration has long sought to implement structural changes at the site, including roof renovations and construction over “Jacob’s Courtyard,” which serves Jewish worshippers for most of the year.

There has been no official confirmation from Israeli authorities or response from the Palestinian government to the report.

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.