Israeli occupation forces continued their sweeping military closure of Hebron’s Old City on Saturday, tightening restrictions across Palestinian neighborhoods and suffocating daily life as thousands of Israeli settlers stormed the Ibrahimi Mosque compound under heavy armed protection.

According to anti-colonialism activist Aref Jaber, Israeli forces have maintained a total shutdown of the Old City since Friday, blocking access to all its neighborhoods. The army declared a curfew, restricted movement for Palestinian residents, and erected multiple new checkpoints on main roads leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque, effectively trapping local families inside their homes.

Residents reported that the military closed several key streets, sealed off surrounding quarters, and barred Palestinians from moving freely—even preventing many from reaching workplaces, schools, or medical facilities. The lockdown comes amid a broader escalation of settler incursions and military repression in the occupied West Bank.

In conjunction with the closure, thousands of Israeli settlers carried out a mass incursion into the Ibrahimi Mosque and its surrounding courtyards, marking what they refer to as “Sarah’s Sabbath,” a religious festival routinely used as a pretext for tightening Israeli control over the holy site.

The storming took place under the full protection of Israeli forces, who assaulted several Palestinian citizens in the vicinity and blocked local worshippers from entering the mosque or accessing nearby residential areas. Palestinians described the scene as yet another attempt to cement settler dominance over one of Islam’s most sacred sites and to transform Hebron’s historic heart into a militarized enclave for colonists.

Local witnesses said the closures and settler incursions are part of a long-standing Israeli policy aimed at fragmenting Hebron’s Palestinian community, displacing residents, and expanding settler presence around the divided Ibrahimi Mosque—where the 1994 massacre by extremist settler Baruch Goldstein led to the permanent partitioning of the holy site.

As of press time, Israeli forces remain deployed throughout the Old City, checkpoints continue to operate, and Palestinian residents remain unable to move freely within their own neighborhoods. (ILKHA)