Israel has seized planning and construction powers covering the Ibrahimi Mosque , on the site of a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank, from Palestinian authorities, scrapping parts of an agreement in place since the 1990s, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday.
In a speech announcing the move, Smotrich said he had “abolished” the parts of the 1997 Hebron Agreement that gave the Palestinian municipal council of Hebron control of planning, zoning and construction in the H2 zone of the West Bank city .
Observers have described the move as “dangerous”. “Hebron for years has been the tensest city in the West Bank,” Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Al Jazeera. “Any moves to change the existing arrangements in Hebron in favour of intensifying the Israeli occupation are extremely dangerous.”
We break down why this is so significant.
What is the Ibrahimi Mosque?
All three Abrahamic faiths believe this is where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives are buried inside the Old City of Hebron.
Jews and Christians call it the Tomb – or Cave – of the Patriarchs.
Muslims, like Christians, also revere Abraham. They built the Ibrahimi mosque, also known as the Sanctuary of Abraham, there in the 14th century, expanding on the first-century BC outer walls built by the Roman King Herod.
Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque have at times been a flashpoint for violence. In 1994, an American-Israeli Jewish settler killed 29 Muslims praying at the shrine and wounded 125 others.
Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, stands in the old city of Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on June 17, 2026 [Ammar Awad/Reuters] What has Israel announced?
Smotrich, a far-right minister, said he had approved the transfer of planning and construction powers for the religious site and nearby Jewish settlers to Israeli authorities late on Monday.
In a speech marking the establishment of a new Israeli settlement near Hebron in the southern West Bank, Smotrich said the “historic step” would deepen “Israeli sovereignty” in the West Bank, which Palestinians see as the heart of a future independent state.
Smotrich’s decision to take over powers for planning and construction of the 20 percent of the city controlled by Israel comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet approved steps earlier this year to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.
Smotrich, who has stated that he wants to eliminate any idea of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, has backed the rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the territory in recent years, which has been accompanied by a rise in settler attacks on Palestinians.
Israeli settlers have killed 13 Palestinians in the West Bank so far this year, according to United Nations data, alongside others killed by the Israeli military.
(Al Jazeera) Who controlled the Ibrahimi Mosque before now?
The Ibrahimi Mosque falls under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, signed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, which split the city into two zones. H1 is under Palestinian control and covers about 80 percent of Hebron, while H2 is under Israeli control, covering the remaining 20 percent which includes the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs, the adjoining Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City.
However, the agreement stipulated that the Palestinian Authority (PA) would oversee planning and construction for the entire city, including the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Hebron’s Old City is recognised as a Palestinian World Heritage site by UN cultural agency UNESCO. Hundreds of Jewish settlers live among tens of thousands of Palestinians in the 20 percent of the ancient city that is under Israeli security control.
Israeli settlers began to establish a growing presence in Hebron in 1968. After 1994, Israel gradually moved to assert control over the Ibrahimi Mosque site by sealing off large parts of Hebron’s Old City and the southern area around the site, then partitioning the mosque between Muslim worshippers and a few hundred Jewish settlers, and granting the settlers prayer rights there.
“When it comes to the Ibrahimi Mosque, it was already de facto under the control of the Israelis in more ways than another. Access to it is heavily restricted and regulated, there’s periodic closures, and I don’t see how this will change that, really,” Fathi Nimer, Palestine Policy Fellow at the Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, told Al Jazeera.
“They can do whatever they want. Now, they just have one less provision, about how it’s, how to regulate, you know, construction around it and such, which I don’t believe they even cared about in the first place.”
(Al Jazeera) What does this mean for the Hebron Agreement?
In an apparent bid to stave off international criticism of Smotrich’s announcement about Hebron, observers say, Israel’s M…
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