Ramallah-Ma’an- The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs issued a special report on Sunday on the occupation’s violations of Islamic and Christian holy sites in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7 of last year.
The Ministry of Endowments said in its statement that the Israeli occupation, during its ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip since a year ago, completely destroyed (611) mosques, partially destroyed (214) mosques, completely destroyed (8) cemeteries, and violated a large number of others by attacking them, digging up their graves, and removing the bodies. It also targeted and destroyed (3) churches in Gaza City.
The ministry continued: The occupation attacked Al-Aqsa Mosque by allowing settlers to storm it and desecrate its courtyards and benches, during (262) raids, during which settlers practiced Talmudic rituals that have become practiced daily, such as the epic prostration that began on 8/13/2024. This prostration was also
practiced by Knesset member Moshe Feiglin for the first time, in addition to blowing the trumpet and wearing prayer clothes in a clear demonstration of their worship practices inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, and their collective Talmudic prayers that are practiced in a specific place and at specific times in a clear consecration of the temporal and spatial division, under the supervision and protection of the occupation police, which permanently prevents the guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque affiliated with the Jerusalem Endowments Department from doing their work inside its courtyards during these raids.
The extremist Ben Gvir, supported by his far-right government, stormed Al-Aqsa (6) times since he assumed his position in this government in February of this year, and issued a number of far-right statements in which he threatened to establish a Jewish synagogue in Al-Aqsa Mosque in a reference to controlling it. He also worked to intensify the Jewish presence through government support and giving it a legal cover.
Regardin
g the Ibrahimi Mosque, the occupation forces practiced their violations on a daily basis, whether by preventing the call to prayer from being performed in it, which has reached approximately (747) times since the aggression on the Gaza Strip, or by restricting Muslim worshipers by preventing them and closing it (5) times during the same period. The occupation also installed the so-called menorah and Israeli flags on the roof and walls of the Ibrahimi Mosque, and held noisy parties and Talmudic prayers in the occupied section, and practiced banging on the doors, shouting, cursing and swearing. The occupation also obstructed the celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday inside the mosque.
The Israeli occupation also attacked (15) mosques in different areas in the West Bank, with a clear focus on the Tulkarm and Jenin governorates, either by partially destroying a number of facilities or by desecrating them by mocking Islamic rituals.
The Ministry of Endowments monitored in its report a number of attacks on holy
places and Christian worshippers, where extremist Jewish religious groups attacked and spat on Christians and Christian pilgrims in the occupied city of Jerusalem, specifically in the area of ??the Church of the Prison of Christ, and they also restricted them during Christian holidays and prevented them from reaching the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Resurrection.
The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs called on the international community to stop this occupation from continuing these violations, which have become more frequent as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. Under the cover of the world’s preoccupation with this hideous aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the occupation is carrying out its attacks without supervision or accountability on our holy sites, most notably the jewel in the crown; Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Source: Maan News Agency