Orphanage charity closed, IDF claims links with Hamas
The Islamic Study Centre in the centre of Hebron is a charity dedicated to the welfare and education of orphans in Hebron, it boasts a library and a study centre built into a shopping complex, and a school with working transport.
However last Tuesday the IOF raided both the shopping centre and the school. In the shopping centre they blew the locks off the doors with live ammunition and then confiscated computers, files, papers and other equipment. They then went into the school and confiscated everything including the chairs and tables as well as four buses and a car. The High Commander had drawn up a notice which explicitly stated that the shopping centre will close on the 1st of May this year, and anyone caught with a business open after this day will face five years imprisonment. The allegation given for this closure and invasion was that the orphanage had links with Hamas and was training and recruiting for them.
The whole shopping centre now faces closure and many Palestinians will have no jobs. The shopping centre also contained health care facilities for the community including and orthopedic centre.
The commander kindly left some numbers that Palestinians could appeal to if they felt this was unfair, other than this the IOF said they feel that these facilities pose “an unwarranted danger to the IDF and as such cannot be allowed to remain open”.