Description

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- A committee of Israeli government ministers has ordered the army to transfer possession of a building in the southern West Bank city of Hebron to Israeli settlers, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The building in central Hebron was a Palestinian shop until it was closed by military order after the 1994 massacre of Muslim worshipers in the Ibrahimi Mosque, the report said.

Israeli settlers took over the building, and the Israeli group Peace Now filed a petition for their removal, it continued.

While the ministerial committee for settlement affairs agreed the settlers should be evicted, they decided the building should be transferred into the ownership of the Israeli settlements in the area.

Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein believes canceling Palestinian ownership of the building may be illegal and is trying to formulate a new position in order to respond to Peace Now's case, Haaretz said.