Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotric said on Tuesday that he removed from the Palestinians the power they had over the religious area of the Patriarchs' Cave, in the city of Hebron on the occupied West Bank, and transferred control of this space to Israel.
Smotric, an Israeli far-right politician, runs in addition to his ministry the Supreme Planning Council, an institution belonging to the Israeli Ministry of Defence and responsible for administrative decisions concerning settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
"Many responsibilities formerly conferred on Hebron and the holy places (found there), including the foundation of our existence, Patriarchs' Cave, they are no longer under the control of the municipality of Hebron," Smotric said in a social media post as he participated in the opening of a new Jewish settlement near Hebron.
Hebron is the largest city on the West Bank and Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
The Patriarchs' Cave is located in the H2 zone, a sector of the city controlled by Israel where about 40,000 Palestinians live next to some 200 families of Israeli settlers.
A place of worship At the same time from Jews, Muslims, and Christians as the burial place of Abraham and other biblical figures, is also known to Muslims as the Ibrahim Mosque.
A protocol signed in 1997 had left the management of most of the band to the Palestinians, a settlement which, Palestinian officials say, was gradually restricted by Israel in recent years.
"I abolished the Hebron protocol," said Smotric, a staunch supporter of the Western Bank annexation and settler himself.
According to Yonatan Mizrahi, co-director of the organization against the settlement activity "Peace Now", this decision was taken at a meeting of the Supreme Planning Council last Wednesday, which confirms the minutes of the meeting.
‘These unilateral measures constitute such unilateral measures. infringement of agreements signed with the Israeli side, as well as a violation of international law," the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reacted with indignation.
The municipality of Hebron denounced for its part Israel's "new attempt" "to impose its control on the historic center of the city of Hebron".
The settlement of the West Bank has continued over all Israeli governments since 1967, but has been greatly accelerated since the rise of the far right in power in late 2022, thanks to an alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and even more so since the attack of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on 7 October 2023, which also sparked the war in Gaza.
Without East Jerusalem being counted, more than 500,000 Israelis are currently living on the West Bank in settlements which the UN considers illegal under international law, among about three million Palestinians.