Desecration of religious sites should not be tolerated: UN

WASHINGTON

Religious sites need to be respected, the UN said Thursday after footage on social media showed Israeli soldiers performing Jewish rituals inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Jenin.

"The desecration of religious sites should not be tolerated. And so that is against common decency, to say the least," spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. "Religious sites need to be respected and cannot be perverted in one way or another".

His remarks came after Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir shared a video of soldiers performing Jewish rituals inside a mosque in Jenin.

It shows an Israeli soldier reciting the Shema Yisrael prayer on the mosque’s loudspeaker. Another soldier is heard saying soldiers are inside a mosque in Jenin.

The soldiers have reportedly been disciplined.

Turning to Gaza, Dujarric said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that heavy rain fell Wednesday in Gaza and flooding has worsened the struggle of displaced Palestinians.

"The rains coupled with the absence of effective waste management have significantly elevated the risk of spreading disease," he said.

Dujarric also stressed that 156 separate incidents have affected UNRWA premises since Oct. 7.

Tensions have been running high across the West Bank amid an Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.

At least 288 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli forces and more than 4,000 others detained, according to Palestinian figures.