The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, and his Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, condemned, on Saturday, the attacks carried out by extremists during their celebration of Jewish holidays in the Old City of Hebron, in the southern West Bank.
Lapid said in a tweet on his official account on Twitter: “What happened in Hebron today is a disgrace. This is harm to Israel’s security, and moral damage to the army. We will punish the perpetrators.”
In turn, Gantz “strongly condemned the attack on the security forces and the Palestinian population by extremists in Hebron.”
He added, in a tweet: “The forces on the ground acted with determination to prevent injury to lives and property, and will continue to play their role and maintain public order.”
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Earlier, Saturday, dozens of Palestinians were injured and bruised, as a result of attacks carried out by settlers, led by extremist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir, while they were celebrating Jewish holidays in the Old City of Hebron.
The Ibrahimi Mosque is located within the Old City of Hebron, and is inhabited by about 400 settlers, who are guarded by about 1,500 Israeli soldiers.
Since 1994, Israel has divided the mosque by 63 percent for Jews and 37 percent for Muslims, following a massacre committed by a settler that resulted in the death of 29 worshipers.
The city was also divided, according to the Hebron Agreement on January 17, 1997, between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, into the H1 and H2 areas, according to which Israel was given full control over the Old City and its outskirts.
The Israeli Prime Minister in charge of forming the government, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the leader of the far-right “Jewish Power” party, Ben Gvir, reached a preliminary agreement to promote settlement in the West Bank.
