A reported plan by Netanyahu to visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron has raised hackles among Palestinians.
In a statement, the Hamas terror group calls the visit “a severe escalation.”
“We warn the criminal Netanyahu of the consequence of storming and desecrating the noble Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron city, and we consider this a serious escalation to which our people won’t remain silent,” Hamas spokesman Izzat al-Rishiq writes in a statement.
The site, known as the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslims, is holy to both Jews and Muslims, who consider it the burial place of the Patriarch Abraham.
The visit, thought to be planned to shore up Netanyahu’s bona fides ahead of elections, was first reported on by right-wing Israeli news site Israel National News. Netanyahu spokesperson Mark Regev says the visit is not on the prime minister’s schedule.
President Reuven Rivlin attends the inauguration of a museum dedicated to the Jewish victims of a 1929 massacre in Hebron, February 2, 2015. (photo credit: Mark Neyman/GPO)
President Reuven Rivlin visited the divided city last month, sparking low-level clashes.
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