Overview
- The Higher Planning Council finalised a move on Monday night that shifts planning and construction authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque and adjacent settler-linked areas from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality to Israeli state bodies.
- Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the full 1997 Hebron Agreement was not cancelled and framed the change as limited to planning and construction for Jewish settler areas and Jewish heritage sites.
- Israeli authorities subsequently approved concrete settler projects, including a reported 1,000-square-metre expansion for a Jewish school in Hebron’s historic core, marking the first such approvals without Palestinian municipal sign-off in decades.
- Palestinian leaders, Hebron’s mayor and Israeli and international rights groups condemned the step as unlawful and warned it could worsen displacement risks, while some observers highlighted Bezalel Smotrich’s political motives and prior international legal scrutiny.
- Hebron’s unique 1997 division left civil planning with the Palestinian municipality despite Israeli security control in H2, and analysts say the change could deepen Israeli control, weaken Palestinian municipal services, and increase regional diplomatic and security tensions.