RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Hebron, 17 February 2022. shots show the closure of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank City of Hebron.

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Raed Masoudi: Head of the Public Relations and Media Department at the Ibrahimi Mosque

STORYLINE:

Israel revealed that it had begun work to build a lift and an access road connecting the car park to the Ibrahimi Mosque itself.

The Hebron Protocol, which Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization concluded in 1997, split Hebron into zones H1 and H2.

The first is administered by Palestine, while Israel holds power over the second, which contains hundreds of illegal settlers.

About a fifth of Hebron, including the Ibrahimi Mosque and old city – which was recognised as a Palestinian World Heritage Site four years ago by UNESCO – are within H2.

Israel started this week construction work at the Ibrahimi mosque in order to facilitate the arrival of Jews at the holy site revered by Muslims as one of their most important holy places in Palestine, but later divided by the Israeli occupation authorities between Muslims and Jews, which they refer to as Cave of the Patriarchs.


Footage by/APAwire