Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublin’s relationship with Washington.

Israeli authorities have revoked the administrative authority of the Palestinian city of Hebron over the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank.

Top church leaders in the Holy Land have condemned intensifying Israeli settler violence on the only entirely Christian Palestinian village remaining in the occupied West Bank.

Palestine warned of “grave repercussions” on Wednesday from an Israeli decision to transfer the authority over the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to a settler council.

Describing the move as a “historic and unprecedented change,” the newspaper said Israel's Civil Administration had reassigned authority over the holy site to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba settlement, adjacent to Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari — one of the most influential leaders in Hebron, the West Bank’s largest region — urged Israel and President Trump, who oversaw the Abraham Accords in his first