Israel has suspended a group of its soldiers after video emerged of Israeli troops reading out Jewish prayers at a mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
In video circulating on social media on Thursday, soldiers are seen inside the mosque, with one using a microphone to read a Jewish prayer in the style of an Islamic call to prayer.
A song about banishing darkness, associated with the current Jewish festival of Hanukkah, is heard sung in Hebrew through a loudspeaker in a minaret.
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The person filming laughs and joins in with the song.
In another, a soldier declares: “In the name of God, the merciful. Here is the spokesperson of the IDF.
“For the residents of the camp, the story is over, we will not allow the presence of armed men inside the camp.
“The future will be clean, we want you to live with dignity in the camp, there is no power beyond the power of Allah,” the soldier adds.
Both videos show soldiers in the mosque with their boots on, where footwear is forbidden.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned what it said was a mockery of the religious sanctum, warning it would increase religious tension.
The soldiers were immediately removed from operational activity, the IDF said.
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