By Staff “Israeli” settlers had desecrated the al-Ibrahimi Mosque compound in the city of al-Khalil [Hebron] last night and at Thursday dawn, after performing Talmudic dances and chanting Hebrew songs during Tarawih prayers and al-Fajr prayers. Eyewitnesses reported that settlers danced and sang in the courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque, under the protection of the “Israeli” Occupation Forces [IOF] soldiers, who were heavily deployed in the area.

Settlers broadcast loud music over loudspeakers, which echoed over large areas in al-Khalil.

The “Great Dawn Campaign” urged the people of al-Khalil to intensify prayers at the Ibrahimi Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan, to emphasize its Islamic identity and link it to the Ramadan rituals.

Hundreds of al-Khalil residents and those of the surrounding villages flocked to the Ibrahimi Mosque to perform the Fajr prayer, on the first day of the month of Ramadan.

It is noteworthy that last March, the “Israeli” occupation authorities prevented the raising of the call to prayer [Adhan] in the Ibrahimi Mosque 59 times under the pretext of disturbing “Israeli” settlers.

The mosque administration stated that the same period witnessed the IOF closing the Ibrahimi Mosque twice; and commenced with razing procedures in the context of obliterating and judaizing Islamic monuments.

The IOF also continued to narrow and limit the number of worshipers on Fridays, allowing only 300 worshipers to pray there.

Also on March, the “Israeli” entity’s so-called Supreme Court approved to implement the construction of an elevator for “Israeli” settlers in the Ibrahimi Mosque.

The settlement project threatens to place the occupation’s hand on historical facilities near the mosque, and to withdraw the authority for construction and planning from the al-Khalil municipality and grant it to the “Israeli” entity’s so-called “Civil Administration”.

The entity seeks to empty the Ibrahimi Mosque of worshipers, through oppressive and arbitrary measures, closing electronic gates, obstructing the movement of citizens at military checkpoints and detaining them.

Al-Khalil suffers from the presence of more than fifty settlement outposts in which about thirty thousand settlers reside, working to strengthen their overall grip on the city