Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced the cancellation of the Hebron Accords in the southern West Bank, withdrawing their provisions and transferring authority to Israel. The move means that the Hebron municipality has been stripped of its authority to administer the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Israel's Channel 14 reported that, during the announcement of the establishment of the "Duran" settlement in Hebron, Smotrich revealed that the process of withdrawing all planning and construction powers granted to the Hebron municipality under the Hebron Agreement had been completed the day before yesterday.
He said the step was carried out following a ministerial decision approved several months ago, and after the Supreme Planning Council took the necessary decisions to complete it the night before last.
According to Smotrich's office, the decision means that planning and construction authorities in Hebron and its holy sites, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, are no longer under the control of the Hebron municipality but have come under Israeli responsibility.
The Palestinian presidency warned of the "danger of the step" announced by Smotrich, considering it "an encroachment on the political and legal status of the city of Hebron and the bilateral agreements signed regarding it."
The presidency said in a statement: "These unilateral steps are rejected, condemned, and in violation of agreements signed with the Israeli side, as well as international legitimacy and international law, which prohibit altering the existing status of the land of the State of Palestine under occupation."
In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed and others wounded yesterday in an Israeli drone strike in the central part of the Strip. The drone targeted a group of residents in the vicinity of Al-Nouri Tower, located north of Nuseirat camp.
Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah confirmed that the bodies of the two victims, along with a number of wounded, had arrived at the hospital as a result of the strike.
The Gaza Ministry of Health issued its daily statistical report documenting the casualties of the ongoing Israeli bombardment. It noted that hospitals had received 5 killed and 8 wounded in the past 24 hours, stressing that a number of victims remain under rubble and in the streets, with ambulance and civil defence crews unable to reach them due to the dangerous conditions on the ground.