UN: Desecration of religious sites should not be tolerated

Religious sites need to be respected, UN has said, after footage on social media showed Israeli soldiers performing Jewish rituals inside a mosque in the occupied 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 on Thursday.

"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.

Growing tensions

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid an Israeli military offensive on Gaza since October 7.

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