WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s troops demolished a mosque in the town of Duma, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, on Thursday morning, Wafa has reported.
According to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors the occupying regime’s settlement activities and settler aggression in the West Bank, the Zionist troops escorted a bulldozer into the town and razed the mosque to the ground. The mosque was built two years ago, he explained, on land owned by the residents of Duma.
Daghlas added that the troops also destroyed farm roads in the southern part of the town.
The Palestinian Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs has condemned the regime’s demolition of the mosque in the occupied West Bank town of Duma, calling it a “clear attack on the holy sites and religious places for Muslims”.
Husam Abu al-Rub, undersecretary of the Ministry of Endowments, slammed the demolition, saying it “violates international and humanitarian norms”.
“This act is a clear challenge to the feelings of Muslims, and it requires us to take a serious stand to prevent its recurrence and the expansion of this occupation that spares no opportunity to push the entire region into a religious war, in its continuous encroachment on our Islamic sanctities,” he said in a statement.
Abu al-Rub called on the international community and religious institutions to prevent further “violations of our sanctities and places of worship”.
The occupying regime destroys Palestinian-owned homes and structures on a daily basis across the occupied West Bank. On Wednesday, for example, they demolished a Palestinian house in the Al-Khalil Hills. The day before, they demolished five Palestinian homes south of the West Bank city of Salfit.
The demolition of Palestinian homes and property takes place with little or no comment from the international community.
Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, on Thursday warned of the expansion of the occupying regime’s settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and the absence of a clear path to end the conflict.
This came during a meeting with the United Nations envoy to the so-called peace process, Tor Wennesland, in Cairo.
During the meeting, Aboul Gheit expressed deep concern about the escalation of Zionist regime violations in the West Bank and Al-Quds, including the regime’s announcement of plans to build thousands of housing units in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the intensification of settler attacks and home demolitions against Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Wennesland briefed Aboul Gheit about the latest developments, including the serious deterioration of the humanitarian situation in besieged Gaza and the great economic difficulties facing the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.