Israel carried out 26 Al-Aqsa incursions, banned 150 calls to prayer at Ibrahimi Mosque in September: ministry

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces and settlers carried out 26 incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque in September, while authorities prevented the call to prayer 150 times and closed Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque for six days, the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said on Tuesday. The ministry said the figures reflected increasing restrictions and religious activity at two of the most sensitive Muslim holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territories, according to the WAFA news agency. The restrictions at the two holy sites come amid a broader escalation in the occupied West Bank, where rising settler violence, Israeli military operations and movement restrictions have increasingly disrupted Palestinian access to communities, farmland and essential services. At Al-Aqsa, the ministry said Jewish religious rituals and public prayers inside the compound had intensified, while groups advocating Jewish prayer rights at the site were calling for access to be expanded to Saturdays. The ministry said such demands were intended to 'impose a new reality and cement temporal and spatial division.' Under the longstanding status quo governing Al-Aqsa, Muslims worship at the compound while non-Muslims may visit during specified hours but are not permitted to pray there. The compound, known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is Islam's third-holiest site and Judaism's holiest. It has long been one of the major flashpoints in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Meanwhile, the six closures of the Ibrahimi Mosque were imposed during Jewish holidays, according to the ministry. The Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, is sacred to Muslims, Jews and Christians and lies in the Israeli-controlled section of Hebron. The site has been divided into separate Muslim and Jewish prayer areas since 1994, when an Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinian worshippers during dawn prayers. Hebron's Old City, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List and its List of World Heritage in Danger in 2017. UNESCO has repeatedly raised concerns over Israeli activities in the area, including restrictions on movement and access to places of worship. The Palestinian ministry said Israel had also kept the mosque's eastern entrance closed and its windows covered with barriers since the beginning of 2025. The ministry also reported incidents affecting other Muslim places of worship across the occupied West Bank in September. It said Israeli settlers set fire to the Imad Al-Din Zengi Mosque in the Nablus area and wrote racist slogans on its walls. Settlers also entered the new mosque in Madama and fired tear gas at worshippers, causing cases of suffocation, according to the ministry. Israeli authorities also demolished the Al-Du'aisat prayer hall in Al-Jiftlik in the Jericho governorate, the report said.