AL-KHALIL, (PIC)
Groups of extremist Israeli settlers staged a provocative flag march Tuesday in the Old City of al-Khalil, in the southern occupied West Bank, heading toward the Ibrahimi Mosque under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
Local sources said dozens of settlers gathered in the Jaber neighborhood and Wadi al-Hussein area, waving Israeli flags and chanting racist slogans against Arabs and Palestinians.
Israeli forces imposed tight restrictions on Palestinian movement in the targeted areas and closed several markets and roads leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque to secure the settlers’ march.
The measures obstructed worshipers’ access to the mosque and prevented residents from reaching their homes.
The march comes amid ongoing Israeli efforts to Judaize al-Khalil’s Old City, tighten control over the Ibrahimi Mosque and turn its surroundings into a heavily militarized settlement zone.
It followed a large Israeli flag march in occupied Jerusalem days earlier, when thousands of settlers marched through Palestinian neighborhoods toward the Old City, with some entering through Damascus Gate before ending at the Buraq Wall plaza.
The annual flag march is widely seen by Palestinians as one of the most visible expressions of Israel’s Judaization policies, drawing tens of thousands of settlers and right-wing Israelis in an attempt to assert Israeli sovereignty over Palestinian Islamic holy sites.
