Israeli Forces Desecrate Jenin Mosque, Kill 12 Palestinians
Viral videos shared by Israeli media and officials, including extremist interior minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, show occupation soldiers singing a Hanukkah song through the loudspeaker of a Jenin mosque in the occupied West Bank.
One video, released by Haaretz, appears to show the mosque in the city blaring out the Hanukkah song We Came to Banish the Darkness.
Another shows an Israeli soldier sitting on the floor of the deserted mosque and speaking into a microphone used to deliver the Islamic call to prayer. "In the name of God, the merciful. Here is the spokesperson of the IDF," he says, in an apparent mockery of the Islamic call.
Soldiers are seen entering the mosque while wearing shoes, an act that Muslims see as an insult to Islamic sanctity.
"For the residents of the camp, the story is over, we will not allow the presence of armed men inside the camp. The future will be clean, we want you to live with dignity in the camp, there is no power beyond the power of Allah," one of the soldiers was heard saying in one of the videos.
'Shameful'
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson with the Palestinian Authority, slammed the desecration as a "shameful" act, warning against dragging the region into a religious war.
Abu Rudeineh warned of the repercussions of these attacks, pointing out that the flames of religious war that Israel seeks to ignite will not be limited to Palestinian region only, but will extend to the entire world if it remains silent about Israel’s crimes and violations of the rights of Palestinian people, Palestine's WAFA News Agency reported.
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The official presidency spokesperson called on the international community, especially the US, to put pressure on Israel to stop its violations against Palestinian people, their property and their sanctities, stressing that these attacks come as a continuation of the attacks on al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Israeli military claimed in a statement that the soldiers had been "removed from operational duty".
Hospital Shooting
Also on Thursday, soldiers operating inside the Khalil Suleiman hospital compound just outside Jenin's built-up refugee camp killed an unarmed teenager there, according to medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Soldiers shot the 17-year-old in the chest, the Palestinian health ministry said.
During the raid Israel blocked ambulances from entering the camp to transport seriously ill patients, Mahmoud Al-Saadi, director of the Palestinian Red Crescent in the northern West Bank city, told Reuters.
"The army did not allow us to enter," despite attempts to coordinate with the International Red Cross and the U.N. Palestinian relief agency, he said, adding soldiers were also stationed outside the hospital.
The military did not respond to a request for comment about the shooting reports of soldiers stopping ambulances reaching the sick.
Since October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 287 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The regime has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and childen, during the ongoing military raid on the besieged Gaza Strip.
Source: Agencies
