Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinians in Gaza, attacked several mosques, incl setting fire to historic Al-Nasr mosque in W Bank
By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least two Palestinians were killed and several injured on Friday in an Israeli drone strike targeting a gathering of civilians in eastern Gaza City, in the northern part of the enclave, despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.
Medical sources told Anadolu that they were killed near Al-Mu’tasim Mosque on Mansoura Street in the Al-Shujaiya neighborhood.
Eyewitnesses confirmed that an Israeli drone carried out the attack.
Although a ceasefire agreement came into effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of war, Israel has frequently carried out attacks that claim the lives of civilians, Wafa said.
A ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement has been in place in Gaza since Jan. 19, halting Israel’s brutal war, which has killed since October 2023 over 48,446, in addition to 111,852 others injured. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead.
WEST BANK
The Israeli army on Friday raided several mosques in the city of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank, and set fire to the historic Al-Nasr Mosque in Bab al-Saha in the Old City.
According to the Palestinian official news agency Wafa, large Israeli military forces stormed multiple mosques, vandalizing their interiors.
The agency reported that Israeli forces deliberately set fire to the Al-Nasr Mosque and blocked firefighters from extinguishing the blaze.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the fire completely destroyed the imam’s quarters, damaging the mosque’s walls and carpets.
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.
During the incursion, the occupation forces stormed and searched several mosques, including Al-Satoon Mosque, Ajaj Mosque, the Great Salah Al-Din Mosque, Al-Tina Mosque, Al-Nasr Mosque, and Al-Beik Mosque. These mosques, all located in the Old City, were ransacked during the raids.
The Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs strongly condemned the incursions, calling them an unprecedented escalation, especially given their timing during the holy month of Ramadan. The ministry denounced the actions as a blatant violation of religious sanctities and an infringement on the right to worship.
“This dangerous invasion, both in scale and timing, is a systematic move by the occupation to desecrate our holy sites,” the ministry said in a statement. “It is a flagrant disregard for human rights, particularly the right to freedom of worship, and a provocation to the sentiments of Muslims worldwide.”
Nablus Endowments Director Nasser Al-Salman also 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,” he said, according to the statement.
Meanwhile, in Hebron, Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs announced on Friday that Israel has refused to fully open the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron for Muslim worshipers as is customary on Fridays during the holy month of Ramadan.
In a statement, the ministry called the move an “unprecedented and dangerous step, both in terms of scale and timing during the blessed month of Ramadan and as part of a systematic plan to obstruct the full opening of the mosque’s halls, courtyards, and corridors to Muslims.”
The ministry explained that the mosque’s handover typically occurs on “the night of Friday during Ramadan” each year, preparing for the full opening of the mosque to worshipers.
Fridays during Ramadan are among the “ten days throughout the year when the Ibrahimi Mosque is fully opened to Muslim worshipers,” it added.
The ministry also noted that “silence about this situation means institutionalizing this new reality, preventing the opening of new areas each time, paving the way for Israel to take complete control of the Ibrahimi Mosque.”
It added that this ongoing violation serves to appease illegal settlers who reject the full opening of the mosque to Muslim worshipers.
Located in the Old City of Hebron, which is under Israeli control, the Ibrahimi Mosque is surrounded by approximately 400 illegal Israeli settlers protected by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
On 25 February 1994, which was also the 15th day of Ramadan, Baruch Goldstein, a Zionist terrorist from the far-right Kach movement, carried out a massacre in al-Ibrahimi Mosque.
Goldstein entered the mosque and opened fire at praying Muslims with an automatic weapon, killing 29 and injuring about 150 others. Later that day, during and after the funeral processions of the victims, there were violent clashes between Palestinian demonstrators and occupation forces, and more Palestinians were killed, according to Institute for Palestine Studies.
After the 1994 massacre, Israel divided the mosque, allocating 63% for Jewish worship and 37% for Muslims. The prayer room for Jews is situated in the Muslim section.
Israel’s defense minister has instructed the military to remain in refugee camps in the northern West Bank until at least the end of the year, he said Friday.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, defense chief Israel Katz said, “More than 40,000 people have been evacuated so far from the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams,” referring to Israeli soldiers forcing out the residents.
“I have directed security forces to remain in these refugee camps until at least the end of the year,” he added.
The Israeli military launched its latest offensive in the northern West Bank some 50 days ago, initially targeting the Jenin refugee camp before expanding operations to Tulkarem’s refugee camps, including Nur Shams, and later to Al-Far’a refugee camp in Tubas.
The Israeli army and illegal Israeli settlers occupying Palestinian lands committed 187 violations against Bedouin communities in the occupied West Bank in February.
A February report published by the Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights read: “A total of 187 violations against Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank were documented in February, carried out by the Israeli army and settlers.”
The report detailed that these violations occurred across various areas, including 39 in Hebron, 18 in Bethlehem, seven in Nablus, 21 in Jericho and the Jordan Valley, 33 in Tubas, 21 in Ramallah, 21 in Salfit, 21 in Qalqilya, and six in Jerusalem.
The documented violations included damage to shelters and tents, physical assaults on civilians, livestock theft, the burning of property and agricultural equipment, home demolitions, destruction of farmland, uprooting of trees, and the construction of new settlement roads.
Illegal Israeli settlers cut down 100 olive trees belonging to a Palestinian farmer in the town of Salfit, located in the occupied West Bank.
According to a report by the Palestinian official news agency WAFA, illegal settlers launched an attack on the Abu al-Ula area of Haris village, west of Salfit.
During the attack, Israeli settlers cut down 100 olive trees on about five acres of land belonging to Palestinian farmer Khalid Akil, it added.
They also stole agricultural tools and water tanks.
Israeli occupation forces forced on Friday a Palestinian resident of the village of Bardala, in the northern Jordan Valley, to demolish part of his home, according to local sources.
Sources told WAFA that resident, Izzat Rashaida, was forced to demolish the third floor of his under-construction house after receiving a prior demolition notice from Israeli authorities.
Around two weeks ago, Israeli forces, accompanied by teams from the so-called “Colonial Council,” raided the village and began photographing the house.
Israeli settlers Friday set up tents on a tract of Palestinian land near Jaba‘ village, northeast of the occupied West Bank city of Jerusalem, according to a local source.
Sami Tawwam, head of the Jaba‘ Village Council, said that Israeli settlers broke into the area of Sahel Jaba‘ (Jaba‘ plain), east of the village, and erected two tents to serve as a nucleus of a new colonial outpost.
He added that the assailants vandalized several olive trees and prevented the Palestinian landowners from reaching their farmlands.
He pointed out that settlers have been attempting over the past two weeks to take over the lands making up the Sahel Jaba‘ to link it to the nearby colony of Adam.
Israeli occupation forces detained a total of 13 Palestinians on Friday, during a military incursion of Al-Fawwar camp and the towns of Dura and Kharas, in the Hebron governorate.
Security and local sources said that the occupation forces stormed Al-Fawwar camp in the south, raided a number of citizens’ homes, ransacked their contents, and detained the freed detainee Fares Adel Al-Titi after severely beating him along with other young men.
They also broke into the town of Dura in the south, where they detained at least seven Palestinian young men. Additionally, the occupation soldiers conducted a military raid on the town of Kharas in the west and detained a young man.
LEBANON
Lebanon’s army says it’s coordinating with mediators and the UN after Israel’s military allowed Israeli nationals to enter southern Lebanese territory in violation of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.
“In the context of the Israeli enemy continuing its attacks and violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, elements of the enemy forces deliberately brought in settlers to visit an alleged religious shrine in the Abbad Houla area in the south, which represents a blatant violation of Lebanese national sovereignty,” the military said in a statement.
Around 250 Haredi Jews — followers of a strict branch of Orthodox Judaism — entered Lebanon to visit the Al-Ibad tomb on the outskirts of the Lebanese border village of Houla under the protection of the Israeli army.
Al-Ibad tomb is of religious significance to Muslims, who believe it contains the remains of Sheikh Al-Ibad, who lived as a hermit in the area around 500 years ago. Jews believe the site to be the tomb of Rabbi Rav Ashi, a Babylonian rabbi who lived in the fifth century and was the first editor of the Babylonian Talmud.
YEMEN
Yemen’s Ansar Allah [Houthis] say that Israel has four days to resume aid to Gaza or face renewed attacks. It’s been six days since all aid supplies were blocked from entering the Strip triggering dire consequences.
Food and fuel supplies are depleting, and the rainy weather is making living conditions unbearable for families sheltering in makeshift camps.
Aid groups, including CARE, report that trucks carrying food, medical supplies, and shelter materials were scheduled to reach Gaza but have been halted.
Since November 2023, the group has carried out more than 100 attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones towards Israel. It said it would limit attacks after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal aimed at ending the war last month.
[Photo: A Palestinian family breaks their fast during the holy month of Ramadan amidst the ruins of their home, destroyed by indiscriminate bombing by Israel in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza on March 07, 2025. Photojournalist: Ali Jadallah/AA]
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