Extremist Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in the southern West Bank on Tuesday along with hundreds of occupiers.
Ben-Gvir's incursion came a day after he forced his way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem during the Jewish Sukkot holiday, which began Sunday and runs through Saturday.
Israel's Channel 14 broadcast footage showing Ben-Gvir during the intrusion into the Ibrahimi Mosque.
"When I arrive at the Ibrahimi Mosque, I draw energy that makes me want to sing and rejoice," Ben-Gvir, who has lived as an occupier in Hebron for years, told the channel during the visit.
Hundreds of occupiers could be seen behind him during the interview.
Israeli authorities announced Monday that the Ibrahimi Mosque would be closed to Muslim worshippers during Sukkot.
"The closure includes a ban on prayers and the Muslim call to prayer at the mosque, ahead of occupiers taking control of it and violating its sanctity during Jewish holidays," the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said in a statement.
"The measures constitute a blatant assault on the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and infringe on freedom of worship and Muslims' right to practice their religious rituals," the ministry said, stressing that the mosque is "an exclusively Islamic endowment."
It warned of grave consequences of continued Israeli measures and attempts to impose temporal and spatial division at the mosque.
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in Hebron's Old City, an area under full Israeli occupation, where around 400 occupiers live under the protection of some 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
Israel divided the mosque in 1994, allocating 63% to Jews and 37% to Muslims, after a Jewish occupier killed 29 Palestinian worshippers in a massacre at the site.
Under unilateral Israeli arrangements, the mosque is closed entirely to Muslims for 10 days each year during Jewish religious occasions and similarly closed to Jews for 10 days during Islamic religious occasions.
Since Israel began its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Israel has not fully opened the mosque to Muslims during their religious occasions.
Israel was established in 1948 on Palestinian land seized by armed Zionist groups that carried out massacres and displaced at least 750,000 Palestinians. Israel later occupied the remaining Palestinian territories and continues to reject withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian state as stipulated in UN resolutions.
