The Occupation Forces’ Attacks on Mosques in the West Bank Reach Their Peak
March 4, 2025
Israel, the occupying power, continues its policy of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. After forcibly evacuating residents of three camps in the West Bank, it proceeded to prevent the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip in a flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions.
The latest Israeli decision came after the United Nations acknowledged the already existing difficulties in allowing the entry of aid and basic necessities into the Gaza Strip, especially with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. The UN had described the situation as catastrophic in light of the severe shortage of basic necessities.
The Media Observatory of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on Israeli Crimes against the Palestinians documented the catastrophic conditions experienced by the people of Gaza, the most prominent of which was the death of six children due to the severe cold after sleeping in the open. The OIC Observatory recorded the murdering of 10 Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces during the period between February 25 and March 3, 2025, despite the ceasefire agreement that witnessed numerous Israeli violations. Rescue teams recovered 43 bodies from under the rubble during the mentioned period, bringing the total number of Palestinian killed, including the murdering of four of them in the West Bank, to 57 during the past seven days. In addition, 106 other Palestinians were injured during the same period.
The OIC Observatory documented the murder of 49,325 Palestinians from October 7, 2023, until March 3, 2025, while the number of Palestinians wounded during the same period reached 118,512.
According to the OIC Observatory, Israeli crimes and violations against mosques in the West Bank, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque, have reached a record level during the past week. The Observatory recorded daily incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli extremists, and the occupation forces prevented the call to prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque “44” times. The occupation forces also continued their attacks on the mosque and its employees, expelling some of them, along with the ongoing threat to remove archaeological landmarks from the Mosque. They also prevented Muslim worshipers from performing the Isha and Tarawih prayers in the Mosque.
Israeli attacks on mosques in the West Bank from October 7, 2023, to March 3, 2025, totaled 47 times, including two crimes that occurred last week when the occupation forces raided and searched a mosque in the village of Zawata and Imam Ali Mosque in the city of Nablus.
In the West Bank, the occupation forces arrested 190 Palestinians, bulldozed a street and destroyed the infrastructure opposite the Al-Sanaa School in Tulkarm. They bulldozed agricultural lands and retaining walls, uprooted trees, demolished retaining walls, house pillars, and a water collection well west of the town of Kafr al-Dik in Salfit, bulldozed agricultural land and uprooted olive trees in the village of Beit Iksa in Al-Quds. They also forced a Palestinian family to evacuate their home in the Khirbet Abu al-Raish area in Salfit, and destroyed a number of vehicles in Jenin.
Between February 25 and March 3, 2025, the occupation forces destroyed 19 houses across various cities of the West Bank, set fire to four others, and demolished 28 multi-use barns and tents. They also demolished a livestock farm in Al-Quds, a supermarket, a rest house, part of a date factory, a restaurant, and a football field in Jericho.
Meanwhile, the occupation forces issued a military order to confiscate 8,438 dunums of land located adjacent to the “Karmiel” settlement east of the town of Yatta in Hebron, and issued another order to confiscate 5,217 dunums of land from the town of Tamoun in Tubas, for the benefit of settlement projects.
The occupation forces also confiscated a private vehicle during a raid on the town of Sa’ir in Hebron, and an amount of 3,500 shekels, personal belongings, a (cell) phone, and personal computers in Beit Ummar in Hebron as well. They also confiscated a bulldozer in Salfit, and two vehicles in the Jalazone camp in Al-Quds.
The number of attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians during the past week alone amounted to 31 attacks. This is represented by their demolition of an agricultural pen in the town of Kafr Qaddum in Qalqilya, and the theft of flocks of sheep in the villages of Duma and Aqraba in Nablus and the town of Al-Auja in Jericho, where they also slaughtered sheep, while settlers grazed their sheep on Palestinian agricultural lands in the Al-Farisiya area in Tubas, and the village of Deir Diwan in Ramallah. Settlers also stole tents and water tanks in the northern Jordan Valley in Tubas, and destroyed property and smashed the windows of six cars in each of the town of Khallet Al-Khader in Tubas, the village of Burqin in Salfit, and Yatta in Hebron.
The number of settlement activities witnessed in the West Bank reached three activities, during which settlers paved a settlement road in Jericho, and set up two tents in the areas of Tina and Hajjar in Bethlehem, and others placed two mobile homes near the Taybeh area where an occupation forces camp is located. This is in an attempt to establish a new settlement outpost on the lands of the town of Beit Kahil in Hebron.
The total number of Israeli crimes and violations within seven days reached 1401 crimes distributed between the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and occupied Al-Quds.