10 September 2011 | Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
At-Tuwani – During the night between the 8th and the 9th of September settlers from the Israeli settlement of Suseya set fire to a house-tent in the Palestinian village of Susiya.
Around 1:00 AM the settlers took a tire that was inserted in a nearby wall, set fire to it, and threw it against the outside wall of the house. The plastic tent covering the house took fire immediately. The owner, awakened by the smoke, was able to move out a of the tent. A gas cylinder that was near the fire. Once out of the burning tent the man saw some torch lights in the valley below the village heading toward the settlement of Suseya.
When Israeli army and police arrived, called by the villagers, the lights were still in sight but neither the soldiers nor the policemen followed or stopped the people carrying them.
The fire was extinguished with the water of a nearby villagers’ tank. The house owner was taken to the hospital for breathing diseases caused by the smoke.
According to Palestinians, the Israeli army did not let Palestinian firemen, coming from the nearby city of Yatta, reach the fire by threatening them.
The house owner told us the next morning: “They (the Israelis, ed) never help Palestinian people. Despite it all there were human beings in danger, someone had to stop the fire, someone had to help us. But this is the occupation.”
Situated in the South Hebron Hills, the Palestinian village of Susiya is exactly between the old, archeological site of Suseya and the outpost of the Israeli settlement Suseya. This is the last of several acts of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against the village. On December 28th 2010 took place a similar incident: settlers set fire to another house-tent. The settlers’ goal is to push Palestinians out of their own land in order to enlarge the settlement.
Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
Pictures of the incident: http://goo.gl/Z3yXn ; http://goo.gl/w7yPW (EAPPI)
Video of the incident: http://goo.gl/iOWUv
For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773
EAPPI SHH, 022 27 42 94