On 23 January 2014, two Israeli settlers, accompanied by three Israeli 
Border Police broke into a room of the derelict al-Sharif house near the il-Ibrahimi mosque. They used electric tools as well as picks and the Border Police appeared not only to be protecting them, but also offering advice about how to enter the derelict building as well cross over the roof of the structure to get to the Gutnick Center.
The settlers opened a passage from the building to the street that leads to the mosque, creating a new link between the area of Avraham Avinu settlement and the Ibrahimi Mosque.
A local resident called the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee when he saw the settlers and an employee came to the site and took pictures of them working.
The house belongs to Palestinian owners and the settlers were trespassing. Furthermore, the settlers were violating a previous court order that prohibits settlement activities in this particular building.
Various incidents involving settlers in this area adjacent to the Ibrahimi mosque over the previous year have led the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee to believe that Hebron settlers are about to establish an outpost near the Ibrahimi mosque.