Israel condemned for raiding 8 mosques in Nablus
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning the storming of eight mosques in the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
The Israeli army set fire to Al-Nasr Mosque in the Old City, one of its most significant historical landmarks, and prevented firefighters from extinguishing the blaze, the Wafa news agency reported.
“The ministry calls for real international intervention to protect our people, their land, property and holy sites,” it said.
More reports of Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank
The Israeli army has raided the town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, the Wafa news agency reports as Palestinians celebrate the first Friday of Ramadan.
Silwad Mayor Raed Nimer Hamed said soldiers entered several areas around the al-Wasta neighbourhood and searched a number of homes. No arrests or fighting were reported.
Israeli forces also raided the town of Surif, north of Hebron, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.
Hamas slams Israeli assaults on occupied West Bank mosques
Israel’s aggression against the Muslim religious sites in the occupied West Bank is part of its “religious war … on our people and our land”, according to the Palestinian group.
It slammed the attacks on the mosques in Nablus and Hebron, adding rooms were set on fire and worshippers prevented from performing the dawn prayer.
“The occupation’s aggression against the mosques of the West Bank in Ramadan is an insistence on religious war and our people will not remain silent about the desecration of their sanctities,” Hamas said on Telegram.
It also condemned Israeli settlers’ storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque and their attempts to take over the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.
The Israeli moves set “a dangerous precedent, which requires making every effort to not repeat it, and standing as an impregnable barrier against the occupation’s policies and ambitions”, it said.
More on Israel’s Al-Nasr Mosque arson attack
The fire set by Israeli soldiers completely destroyed the imam’s quarters and damaged the mosque’s walls and carpets, residents told Wafa news agency. Al-Nasr Mosque is one of Nablus’s most significant historical landmarks, originally built as a Roman-era church before being converted into a mosque in 1187.
Palestine’s Religious Affairs Ministry condemned the Israeli assaults on Old City mosques in Nablus.
“Israeli forces stormed Al-Nasr Mosque in Bab al-Saha in the Old City at dawn today, set it on fire, and prevented Nablus municipal firefighters from extinguishing the blaze, causing extensive destruction,” a statement said. “Israeli forces raided several mosques in the Old City without warning, desecrating their interiors.”
Nablus Endowments Director Nasser al-Salman denounced the “brutal Israeli assault” on Nablus’s mosques.
“Such actions have been unprecedented since the Nakba of 1948, and they reflect Israel’s blatant disregard for religious, moral, and international norms that guarantee the right to worship and access holy sites.”
West Bank refugee camps nearly emptied of their residents: UNWRA
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said the Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, in the northern occupied West Bank, have been nearly emptied of their residents.
“With widespread destruction to civilian infrastructure including homes, people now face the prospect of having nowhere to return to,” UNWRA said in a statement.
According to the agency, Israeli forces began the demolition of more than 16 buildings in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.
“This comes less than a week after 11 houses were demolished in the same camp, 14 other houses in the Tulkarm Camp, and controlled detonations in Jenin Camp around a month ago that left the camp uninhabitable,” read a statement.
“These large-scale demolitions are an alarming new pattern. They have an unprecedented impact on the Palestinian refugees and seek to permanently change the characteristics of the camps in the northern West Bank,” UNRWA added.
Israel’s continuing military operation in the territory has resulted in the largest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since the 1967 war, with some 40,000 people displaced from their homes, said the UN relief agency.
