More provocations
Israeli forces seal off Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims
The mosque, considered one of Islam’s holiest sites, will be shuttered to Muslims today and tomorrow as Israeli forces reserve the complex for Jewish settlers marking Passover, reports the Wafa news agency.
Israeli troops have ramped up restrictions and closed checkpoints leading to the religious site, which is known to Israeli Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Access to the religious complex is a flashpoint issue in occupied Hebron, where some 700 Jewish settlers live, with Israeli forces closing it to Muslims for about 10 days each year coinciding with Jewish holidays, according to Wafa.
Egyptian police crack down on pro-Palestine demonstrations
Egyptian authorities have arrested activists at a protest held in solidarity with Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.
Lawyer Khaled Ali said at least 18 activists, mostly women, were detained when police broke up the protest outside the regional office of the UN Women agency in Cairo’s Maadi district on Tuesday. There was no comment from the government.
Protesters called for the protection of women in Gaza. Although Egypt’s government has condemned Israel’s campaign in Gaza, it has largely banned public demonstrations against the war. Criticism of the country’s ties with Israel, with which it signed a peace accord in 1979, is highly sensitive.
Activists hold bread as they participate in a pro-Palestinian protest in Cairo this month
UN official demands release of Egyptian human rights defenders
Mary Lawlor, a special rapporteur on human rights defenders for the United Nations, says the protesters who were detained by Egyptian authorities yesterday in solidarity with the women of Gaza and Sudan should be released.
We reported that a number of lawyers, journalists and civil society leaders who gathered outside the office of UN Women in Cairo were detained
Human rights lawyer Mai El-Sadany said in a post on X that at least 16 are being questioned by Egyptian security services.
