Hamas Warns Over Israeli President's Visit to Al-Khalil

By Al Mayadeen
Source: Agencies
27 Nov 2021 12:58
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A senior Hamas official says that "the Israeli occupation must bear full responsibility for the repercussions of this assault".

Israeli President Isaac Herzog

Hamas has warned, on Saturday, of "repercussions" over plans by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit the Ibrahimi Mosque, the center of al-Khalil, in the occupied West Bank.

On Friday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog's office said he would take part in a ceremony on Sunday.

In a statement, senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan said that "the Israeli occupation must bear full responsibility for the repercussions of this assault".

The ceremony "is a provocation of Palestinians' feelings and a blatant desecration of the sanctity of the mosque," he said, calling on Palestinians "to ward off this provocative move".

Israeli checkpoints: "death traps" for Palestinians

Israeli occupation forces in al-Khalil forbid Palestinians from walking on large sections of what was before the occupation the city's main thoroughfare, as part of the Israeli army's policy of making those areas "sterile" of Palestinians.

Al-Khalil map (Human Rights Defenders Group)

On his account, the Coordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Group Imad Abu Shamsieh recently told Al Mayadeen English that the Israeli occupation has placed more than one hundred checkpoints with metal and electrical gates, surveillance cameras, reinforced concrete barriers, and inspection outposts in the "sterile" routes.

He also divulged that around 525 Palestinian shops were completely closed in 2000 due to an Israeli occupation’s military court decision.

Furthermore, Abu Shamsieh tersely stated that Palestinian vehicles, including ambulances, have been banned from the "H2 area" since October 2000.

The human rights activist went on to say that “the Israeli occupation forces impede local and international journalists from entering the H2 area and sterile routes. Simultaneously, I, along with a group of Palestinians in al-Khalil, decided to document the Israeli war crimes which occur on daily basis, and target Palestinian men, women, and children.”