Palestinians marks 29 years since Israel’s massacre in Al-Ibrahimi Mosque

Today marks the 29th anniversary of the Israeli massacre in Al-Ibrahimi Mosque, which resulted in the martyrdom of 29 Palestinian worshipers on spot and the injury of 150 others. Yet, 29 years later, the victims are still paying the price for the massacre.

On Friday, 25 February 1994, the 15th day of the holy month of Ramadan, the Jewish terrorist settler, Baruch Goldstein, broke into Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the southern West Bank city of Al-Khalil (Hebron), while Muslims were performing the dawn prayers on a Ramadan day and opened fire on the worshipers killing 29 on the spot.

The Israeli occupation forces present in the area closed the gates of the mosque to prevent the worshipers from leaving and prevent those coming from outside from entering it to help the wounded.

But the 29 martyrs were not the only victims of that massacre. That same day, the occupation forces opened fire at Palestinians participating in the funerals of the martyrs, killing 21 more people.

With tension escalating in the occupied territories, the occupation forces opened fire at protesters the next day, killing 10 more Palestinians and wounding hundreds of others amid the deadly silence and inaction of the international community.

Palestinian Minister of Religious Endowments Hatem Al-Bakri said in a statement to SANA that the occupation took advantage of the horrific massacre to seize parts of the mosque and turn its courtyards into places used by settlers to attack the Palestinians and prevent them from reaching the mosque.

He pointed out that the anniversary of the massacre comes as the Israeli occupation continues with its siege on the mosques through constant settlement building activities and Judaization attempts demonstrated in changing its historical features.

Al-Bakri added that the UNESCO organization, which included the Ibrahimi Mosque on the World Heritage List, has been addressed several times to stop the falsification and destruction practiced by the occupation in this historical place in order to obliterate its cultural and historical features, but to no avail. He stressed that the Palestinian people will continue to defend this holy mosque against the occupation’s attempts to Judaize it and falsify its history and its Arab and Islamic civilization, reiterating that all the aggressive measures of the occupation will not undermine the resistance of the Palestinian people.

For his part, Director of Al-KHalil Endowments Nidal Al-Jabari stated that since the massacre, the occupation has been carrying out ethnic cleansing operations against the Palestinians in the city as part of a systematic plan aimed at ending Palestinian presence in the vicinity of the mosque through establishing settlement outposts, carrying out excavations and digging works aiming at distorting and undermining Al-Khalil civilization. The occupation seized 67 percent of the area of the mosque in favor of its plan to establish a settlement in the heart of the Old City of Al-Khalil.

Rateb al-Jabour, Coordinator of the Wall and Settlements Resistance Commission, said that the occupation forces have turned the houses surrounding Al-Ibrahimi Mosque into military barracks from where they can shoot at and kill or terrorize the Palestinians to prevent them from reaching the mosque.

He padded that the occupation has completed the establishment of a settlement outpost in the vicinity of Ibrahimi Mosque after seizing 6,000 square meters of its area, pointing out that the occupation also announced a plan to seize 11 dunums to establish more settlement outposts in this area.

Hamda Mustafa