West Bank unrest deepens as Israel alters Hebron site control

RAMALLAH, Palestinian territories

A woman looks through an iron gate during celebrations of the Islamic Hijri New Year at the Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, located inside the Israeli-controlled H2 sector of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on June 16, 2026.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on June 16 he has stripped Palestinians of administrative authority over one of the West Bank’s most sensitive religious sites, while settlers set fire to a mosque in a nearby village in an escalating pattern of unrest across the occupied territory.

Smotrich said in a Telegram post that management of the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron — known to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque — would be transferred from the Palestinian-run Hebron municipality to an Israeli committee under his control.

“The meaning of this decision is that many authorities previously granted in Hebron and at the holy sites … are no longer under the control of the Hebron Municipality,” Smotrich said.

The move drew immediate condemnation from the Palestinian Authority, which called it a violation of existing agreements and international law.

“Such unilateral measures are rejected and condemned, and constitute a violation of signed agreements with the Israeli side,” the office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said.

Smotrich made the announcement while attending a ceremony marking the laying of the foundation stone for a new Israeli settlement near Hebron. He described the step as part of “practical sovereignty” over the area, according to footage released by his party.

The Cave of the Patriarchs sits in Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The site lies within the city’s H2 zone, where Israel maintains security control and roughly 40,000 Palestinians live alongside about 200 Israeli settler families.

The compound is revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the burial site of Abraham and other biblical patriarchs.

Separately, Israeli settlers on June 17 set fire to a mosque in the village of Jiljiliya, north of Ramallah, according to the local mayor and AFP journalists who visited the site.

Village council head Osama Abdullah said settlers torched an ablution room and damaged parts of the mosque after finding the main entrance locked.

“Settlers set fire to the ablution room, caused damage to the village’s main mosque, and scrawled hostile slogans on the outer walls,” Abdullah said.

AFP journalists reported blackened ceilings, walls and floors and Hebrew graffiti including the words “vengeance” and “hi from the Hilltop Youth,” a radical settler group often linked to violence against Palestinians.