Jerusalem: Israeli occupation army on Tuesday demolished a mosque under construction in the northern occupied West Bank, Wafa News Agency reported.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowments said in a statement that the Israeli authorities demolished the Al-Samoud Mosque in the Al-Ramadin community near the city of Qalqilya, under the pretext of building without a permit.
The Palestinian Minister of Awqaf Hatem Al-Bakri condemned the demolition of the mosque in the West Bank, saying that it clearly indicates the barbarism that the Israeli incitement machine has reached towards the holy sites in Palestine.
He said that this crime is a blatant attack on Muslims and their feelings.
“There are no longer safe places of worship in light of the attacks and crimes they are exposed to by the Israeli occupation and its settlers,” Hatem added.
Al-Bakri called on Islamic and international institutions to work to end these attacks, including the one on the mosque in West Bank. Al-Ramadin community is located behind the Israeli separation wall in Qalqilya Governorate and is inhabited by about 400 Palestinians.
The occupation authorities prohibit the building or reclamation of lands in classified areas (C) without licenses, even though obtaining these licenses is almost impossible.
The Oslo 2 agreement signed in 1995 classified the lands of the West Bank into 3 areas: (A) which is under full Palestinian control and constitutes about 3 percent of the area of the West Bank, and area (B) is under Palestinian civil control and joint Israeli-Palestinian security control, and area (C) is under the control of Israeli civil, administrative and security forces, and the latter constitutes about 61 percent of the area of the West Bank.