Zionist occupation gangs have verbally ordered a Palestinian storeowner to close the doors of his business near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of al-Khalil as a prelude to carrying out its plan to build a Jewish settler neighborhood in the area.

According to local sources, zionist gangs ordered the storeowner to shut down his store permanently as part of a plan to seize scores of homes and stores near the Ibrahimi Mosque and the central wholesale market in al-Shuhada street in order to build a neighborhood for Jewish settlers.

Zionist war minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday announced his intent to build a new Jewish-only settlement in the vicinity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and in the wholesale market street.

The market area is on al-Khalil’s once-bustling Shuhada Street, which leads to the Islamic holy site, the Ibrahimi Mosque.

The street is now largely closed off to Palestinians, who have long demanded that it be reopened. Zionist gangs closed this street with its homes and stores after one of the extremist Jewish settlers committed a massacre against Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in 1994. (ILKHA)