Jewish settlers officially take over supervision of the Ibrahimi Mosque!"

Zionist Authorities Transfer Full Control to Settlers

Zionist authorities have officially decided to seize full control of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, in what appears to be a rehearsal for a similar takeover of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

This move is already being implemented on the ground through a decision that grants Jewish settlers administrative authority over the mosque—stripping Muslims and the Islamic Waqf of their long-standing custodianship.

What does it mean for "Israel" to withdraw the powers of the Ibrahimi Mosque? Will they succeed in applying this rehearsal to the Al-Aqsa Mosque?

From 1994 Massacre to Gradual Judaization

The Zionist plan began in 1994 when worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque were subjected to a brutal crime, carried out by one of Rabbi Kahane's followers, Baruch Goldstein, an American born in New York, who entered the sanctuary during Ramadan with an automatic weapon, killing 30 Muslim worshippers and injuring 125.

Instead of solving the problem, the occupation intervened to reward the murderous settlers, giving them control over 63% of the sanctuary, while only 37% of its area was allocated to Muslims. This is in addition to the restrictions on prayer, the banning of the call to prayer, and the prohibition of Muslims from entering their mosque during Jewish holidays. Then, it was decided to grant the settlers occupying Hebron the right to manage the mosque and to exclude the endowments; this means it has now become easier to completely prevent Muslims from entering the mosque and to take full control of it, turning it entirely into a Jewish temple after they successfully implemented a plan to divide prayer times and spaces between Muslims and Jews within it.

Violation of International Agreements and Hebron Protocol

It is the same plan they are currently implementing at Al-Aqsa Mosque; they have succeeded in enforcing a temporal division, meaning allocating times for Jewish prayers in the "Aqsa" courtyard and preventing Muslims from praying. They are now planning to impose a spatial division by allowing Jews to designate a space for themselves inside the mosque to pray in!

Now, after the decision to prohibit the endowments from supervising the Ibrahimi Mosque, Jews will have the right to control 100% of the mosque, completely preventing Muslims from entering it; this contradicts their previous decisions in the Shimgar Committee in 1994 and nullifies them. The "Israeli" decision also signifies a blatant violation of the Hebron Agreement, which is the 1997 redeployment protocol that stipulated that the services provided in the mosque would be by the Hebron Municipality and that the Islamic endowments are the supervising authority over the Islamic part of it.

Israeli authorities have decided to transfer full control of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron to the Settlements Council, stripping the Islamic Waqf and the Hebron Municipality of their long-standing custodianship. The move, seen as a rehearsal for a future takeover of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, marks a serious escalation and a direct violation of the 1998 Hebron Protocol—signed between current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat—which clearly stated that the mosque would remain under the jurisdiction of the Hebron Municipality. This decision constitutes a blatant breach of international agreements.

The UNESCO organization has listed the Ibrahimi Mosque on the Islamic World Heritage list, which means that what the occupation is doing is in violation of the laws. This is why "Israel" withdrew from the organization in 2019 to evade its international obligations and continue its unilateral policy towards the holy sites.

How did Jewish Settlers take over the Ibrahimi Mosque?

The Ibrahimi Mosque is located in the old town of Hebron, which is under occupation control, and is home to approximately 400 settlers protected by around 1,500 Israeli soldiers. They have a religious council that will be responsible for the Ibrahimi Mosque, according to a decision made on July 15, 2025.

On this day, the Central Command of the occupying army, responsible for the West Bank, withdrew the authorities overseeing the Ibrahimi Mosque from the Palestinian municipality of Hebron and the Waqf.

The occupation has decided to transfer supervisory authority over the mosque to the religious council in the Kiryat Arba settlement—an unprecedented move since 1994 that further deepens the Judaization of the Ibrahimi Mosque and seeks to impose it as a new reality on the ground.

Even Hanan Greenwood, settlement affairs correspondent for Israel Hayom, described the latest decision regarding the Ibrahimi Mosque as “dramatic,” viewing it as part of the ongoing Judaization process in the occupied Palestinian territories. He stated that this move is a direct extension of the actions of the so-called Civil Administration under Israel’s Ministry of Defense, overseen by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is actively pushing for sweeping changes to the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Among these changes is a project to rebuild the roof of the Ibrahimi Mosque, which includes creating a designated roofed area for Jewish settlers in what is referred to as “Jacob’s Courtyard,” in addition to constructing private restrooms for Jews inside the mosque. These justifications were used to strip the Islamic Waqf of its supervisory authority over the mosque, allowing them to carry out their plans as they wish, including building a synagogue within the mosque’s courtyard.

The settler-affiliated Channel 7 website revealed that a recent meeting, chaired by Defense Minister Israel Katz, discussed the withdrawal of authority from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality and the Islamic Waqf. The meeting resulted in an official decision to grant supervisory authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement—marking an unprecedented shift of responsibility from Palestinian institutions to a settler body for the first time.

Historical Attempts to Change the Mosque’s Status

In a previous study, the "Israeli" researcher on settlement affairs Moshe Ori'el stated that attempts to take control of the Ibrahimi Mosque date back to after the occupation of Hebron in 1967, when Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief military rabbi at the time, sought to change the status of the mosque and convert part of it into a Jewish synagogue.

However, the Defense Minister at the time, Moshe Dayan, rejected the move and removed the equipment brought by Goren, deciding to keep control of the Ibrahimi Mosque in the hands of Muslims in order to avoid religious confrontations.

However, just two months after the city was occupied, Jews were allowed to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque for the first time—during specific hours—as visitors to a historical site, not as worshippers. The same scenario later unfolded at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In 1979, the Israeli government decided to allow settlers to pray in all halls of the Ibrahimi Mosque and to bring in Jewish religious items, marking the beginning of a policy of religious division of the mosque between Muslims and Jews.

The matter culminated on July 15, 2025, with an official decision by the occupation authorities to revoke the Hebron Municipality’s authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque and transfer it to the Jewish religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement, built on the city’s land. The council has already begun implementing changes at the mosque to expand the space allocated for Jewish rituals. Later, settlers began attempting to construct a roof over “Jacob’s Courtyard,” which they use for their prayers.

In February 2025, the occupation authorities stripped the Palestinian Waqf of its supervisory role over the Ibrahimi Mosque and assigned it to the Israeli Civil Planning Authority, as part of a broader plan to expand their control over the holy site.

A previous attempt was made by settlers in 2024 to impose a new reality by seizing the mosque’s courtyard, aiming to control nearly 80% of the Ibrahimi Mosque in preparation for a full takeover, converting it into a Jewish temple, and eventually preventing Muslims from entering.

These attempts began as early as 2005, when settlers set up a tent in the courtyard of the mosque, claiming it was a place of worship. Over time, they gradually expanded the tent and turned it into a de facto synagogue within the mosque’s courtyard—and today, they are working to roof it permanently.

Full Takeover of Ibrahimi Mosque Seen as Rehearsal for Al-Aqsa

It appears that what the occupation has done at the Ibrahimi Mosque is a rehearsal and a test by the Israeli authorities to gauge the reaction of Palestinians, as well as the Arab and Islamic world—before applying the same measures to Al-Aqsa Mosque and ultimately dismantling the current status quo.

The Palestinian Scholars Association warned of the implications and objectives of the Zionist decision, affirming that the takeover of the Ibrahimi Mosque is a prelude to seizing control of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Groups advocating for the so-called Temple have already begun calling on the occupation government to take similar steps at the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque—by stripping the Islamic Waqf of its authority and transferring control to the occupying forces and settler intruders. The mosque is currently subjected to a series of actions aimed at imposing full Israeli sovereignty, including its closure during specific hours and the complete prevention of prayer.

Read the article in Arabic