The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas called on Israel to "
take full responsibility
" for the decision of the Israeli president to light the first candle of the traditional Jewish holiday of Hanukkah on Sunday at a disputed site in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
On Friday, the office of Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced that he would participate in Hebron in this ceremony at the Cave of the Patriarchs, Ibrahim's mosque for Muslims.
This site, the second holiest site in Judaism, is also revered by Muslims.
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Hebron, which is the largest city in the West Bank, is home to around 1,000 Jewish residents living under military protection, amid more than 200,000 Palestinians.
Israeli colonization in the occupied territories is considered illegal under international law.
Israel "
must take full responsibility for the consequences of this aggression,
" Ismail Redwan, a senior Hamas official, said in a statement Friday. The lighting of the candle is "
a provocation to the feelings of the Palestinians and a blatant desecration of the sanctity of the mosque,
" he added, calling on Palestinians in the West Bank and Hebron "
to repel this provocation
." The announcement of the Israeli presidency also angered the leftist anti-colonization Meretz party.
The UK officially classified Hamas, ruling in the Gaza Strip, as a terrorist organization on Friday.
So far, only the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, has been banned in the country, while the Islamist movement is already on the blacklist of terrorist organizations in the United States and the European Union (which the UK left in 2020).
This ban now also extends to the political wing of Hamas.
