Israel seizes powers over Hebron shrine in occupied West Bank

JERUSALEM - Israel has seized planning and construction powers at a Jewish and Muslim shrine in the occupied West Bank from the Palestinian Authority, scrapping an agreement in place since the 1990s, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday.

Under the 1997 Hebron Agreement, Palestinians controlled planning and construction in the entire city, including the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the adjoining Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque.

The far-right minister said he had given the final sign-off late on Monday to the transfer of those powers as they affected the religious site and the nearby Jewish settlement to Israeli authorities.

Israel's right to control the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East War, is not recognised internationally. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office called the seizure of powers an "infringement upon the political and legal status of Hebron", and a violation of international law.

In a speech marking the establishment of a new Israeli settlement near Hebron, Smotrich said the "historic step" would deepen "Israeli sovereignty" in the West Bank, which Palestinians seek as the heart of a future independent state.

Israel is due to call an election by the end of October, ahead of which Smotrich is struggling in the polls. A settler himself, he has long pushed for the annexation of the West Bank and his party draws much of its support from ideologically motivated settlers who view the West Bank as their biblical heartland.

Hebron has at times been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence. In 1994, a Jewish settler killed 29 Muslims praying at the shrine.

The decision to transfer the powers was taken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet in February, one of a series of measures meant to make it easier for settlers to buy land and give Israeli authorities more enforcement powers in the territory.

Smotrich has been key to a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has been accompanied by ⁠a rise in violence.

U.N. bodies and most countries have found Israel's settlements in the West Bank to be illegal. Israel disputes this view, citing biblical and historical ties, as well as security needs.

Settlers have killed 13 Palestinians this year, according to U.N. data.

-Reporting by Pesha Magid and Ali Sawafta; Editing by Kevin Liffey/Reuters