The imam of Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi prostrated in the city of Hebron, Sheikh Adel Idris, after reading 4 verses of the Qur’an in the first rak’ah of the Fajr prayer on Friday 15 Ramadan 1415 AH corresponding to February 25, 1994, when he heard the sounds of bullets being fired in all directions at the worshipers after the settler “Baruch” stormed Goldstein, "the Ibrahimi Mosque and began shooting at the worshipers, who numbered about 450 Palestinians.

Sheikh Idris tells Al-Jazeera Net that the presence of a recitation prostration between the verses of the first rakah is what reduced the number of martyrs and wounded because Goldstein was planning to fire from his M16 rifle at the worshipers while they were standing, so 29 martyrs rose and 150 others were wounded (inside the mosque and in the clashes that followed the accident With the occupation forces), before worshipers attacked and prepared for him.

A military post of the occupation army in one of the streets of the Old City, which separates the Palestinian area from the settler areas (Al-Jazeera)

Attacks before the massacre

Sheikh Idris still remembers all the details of the massacre, which was preceded by a threat from settlers during Tarawih prayers the day before that they would attack the worshipers, and their harassment has never stopped since the first moment of the occupation of Hebron in 1967, which was by burning mosque carpets, throwing stones and shoes at worshipers, and attacking them.

The sheikh talks about his brother, the martyr Salim, who was the father of a child and his wife was pregnant, and he was injured in the massacre, and when an attempt was made to rescue him, he died after a bullet penetrated his shoulder and another in his head. A third after donating blood to one of the massacre's wounded.

Sheikh Idris reveals to Al-Jazeera Net that Goldstein was not alone in the campus at the moment of the massacre, but there were 15 settlers who came to protect it, and this proves that one of the wounded who were transported to Jordan for treatment turned out to be injured by bomb shrapnel other than the bullets of the settler’s weapon.

Signs indicating the road to the Tomb of the Patriarchs, which end with an iron gate controlled by the occupation (Al-Jazeera)

While Mamoun Wozouz, who was at the age of 18 years old, sees how he changed the place of his prayer shortly before the opening of the first takbeer, to be close to his place of protection from bullets.

Wozuz believes that the more correct name for the massacre is the "Hebron massacre," because the killing of Palestinians was not only inside the Haram, but was later extended by the occupation army bullets during the funeral of the martyrs and around the hospitals that were treating the wounded.

Wozuz confirms to Al-Jazeera Net - being an eyewitness - that the massacre was orchestrated, and the biggest evidence is that the matter was not an act of terrorism, but it was followed by punishing the victim and rewarding the executioner by giving him a large area of ​​the Haram and the surrounding of the Old City, as is the case in Al-Shuhada Street, Al Sahla, the Old Market and others.

An iron fence that the Palestinians placed over the corridors of the Old City to protect themselves and their visitors from settler attacks (Al-Jazeera)

Punish the victim

A few months after the massacre, the occupation authority formed the "Shangar" committee, which appeared to have solved the problem through the temporal and spatial division of the Ibrahimi Mosque. Part of it was for Jews and the other for Muslims, provided that it was opened 10 days a year for each side completely.

And after 27 years of the massacre, it is forbidden to raise the call to prayer in the sanctuary between 500 and 600 times per year, and the entire campus is closed on Jewish holidays to Muslims, and settlers are allowed to hold parties and events.

And outside the Haram, the director of the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee, Imad Hamdan, says that the Old City of Hebron and its environs has been divided into 4 sections: the green area in which the Palestinians are allowed to move freely, and the pink one in which the Palestinians are allowed to enter on foot after inspecting the checkpoints and electronic gates, and a yellow third that Palestinians enter from Residents of the area only, and the Hamra fourth, which is forbidden for Palestinians to enter, constitutes approximately 15% of the area's area, while the rest of the areas are roughly divided among the other three areas.

Cement cubes block one of the alleys of the Old City of Hebron, separating the Palestinian and Israeli sides (Al-Jazeera)

Human massacre continues

It remains to be noted that the four areas and all the divisions that occurred are controlled by one side and one soldier, which is the Israeli, despite the fact that the number of Palestinians today in the Old City is close to 10 thousand, and before the massacre they were only about 400.

On the other hand - according to Hamdan - the occupation claimed that before the massacre the number of settlers was 400, but in reality they do not exceed 200 settlers, and today it is estimated that after all these years and after controlling all these areas, the number does not exceed 400 settlers, protecting each of them 4 Soldiers.

And now the occupation has taken advantage of the Corona pandemic and decided to completely close the campus, but it closes it to the Palestinians only, and at the beginning of the corona procedures easing allowed 40 Palestinians to pray, and then reduced them to 20 people, who are practically the sanctuary and supervisors of the campus.

Other Palestinians are also prevented from entering the Haram on the pretext that the 20 permitted persons are present in it, which is evidence that the battle is still ongoing despite the Palestinian reinforcement in it, and despite all this intrusive and settlement activity, however, after 27 years of the massacre, the Palestinians are still clinging to the Ibrahimi Mosque and strengthening their presence. Around it and establish their prayers in it, so that it remains a sacred Islamic landmark despite all the restrictions of the occupation.