23rd August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Three underage boys, 2 aged 13 and 1 aged 14, were arrested today in occupied Hebron (al-Khalil), the soldiers accusing them of throwing stones. Up to 40 soldiers went out of their military base in Bab al-Baladdbiya, and raided several houses searching alleged suspects.
Israeli soldiers raiding homes and arresting three underage boys
Israeli occupation forces arresting 3 children
After arresting the three children and bringing them to the military base, the heavy armed military presence stayed in the old town and raided several houses, ID-checking young male Palestinians and blocked the main market street, preventing residents from reaching their houses.
Israeli soldiers blocking the streets, and denying Palestinians access to the streets
The occupation forces violently controlled the crowed by shooting teargas into the crowd, and throwing stun grenades.
21st August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On August 9th Israeli occupation forces invaded a home in occupied al-Khalil (Hebron). The soldiers came in the early hours at 01 am and stayed inside the house for three and a half hours until they left at around 04:30 am.
The soldiers could not produce a warrant for the invasion, however the police did not react when the incident was reported. Nor did the civil administration of the area. This procedure is nothing unfamiliar for the family: earlier this year the families house was raided, all phones were confiscated and the family was not allowed to film the incident or to get any information about the reason for the invasion afterwards.
Israeli forces in the family home Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari
This time, resident Ayatt Jabari filmed the incident as it took place, and it appears that 35-40 soldiers took part in the operation, ravaging the family’s home. K9´s were also deployed.
The Israeli forces forbid Ayatt to film what happened, but she refused to acknowledge this command in her own home. She has a permission to film and showed it to the soldiers but they still tried to prevent her filming the scene.
Apart from this, the soldiers confiscated all phones in the household, as well as breaking personal belongings, and amongst others the wifi-router, thus prohibiting them from contacting either police, lawyers, friends or international presence, effectively holding them hostages. This is standard procedure for house invasions according to the Israeli human rights NGO, B’Tselem.
During the raid, exit and entrance was denied to anyone but the soldiers carrying out the invasion. The residents, including small children, were forced into a single room in the house and guarded, as the rest of the building was being raided. TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) was however contacted by Ayatts brother who saw the invasion from his home, before he was also detained for doing so.
Israeli soldier checking ID of one of the family members Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari
The household that is home to 25 residents is located in Wadi Al-Hussein, in the H2-area, the part of al-Khalil that is under Israeli authority. Surrounded by various illegal Israeli settlements including Kiryat Arba, the biggest settlement in al-Khalil, the families are regularly subjected to systematic as well as arbitrary violence and harassment both by settlers and Israeli occupation troops. During Ramadan new checkpoints were built in this area to further limit the residents from already restricted freedom of movement.
As a journalist visited the family the day following the raid, he was stopped and detained at a checkpoint leaving Wadi Al-Hussein.
According to Ayatt Jabari, the motive behind the invasion seemed to be a matter of intimidation or revenge following a recently made court decision in favour of the family regarding their legally owned land. This sort of action is and has long been part of the occupation forces intimidation tactics.
Israeli forces when entering the family home Photo credit: Ayatt Jabari
Ayatt Jabari is part of B’Tselems project, giving video cameras to residents and families often attacked and harassed by the Israeli forces and/or illegal Israeli settlers, giving Palestinian communities a chance to document the regular suppression and violence of the occupation.
20th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
On Friday evening the Al Khalil team surveyed the intersection of prayer road. The route leading north towards the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba had Israeli soldiers posted all along, with several military vehicles stationed by the intersection. Both settlers and Palestinians crossed the intersection, and the Palestinian residents were being closely monitored by both soldiers and border police.
Israeli soldiers and settlers in occupied Hebron
As shabbat was approaching, the tension along the prayer road increased and more Israeli soldiers began patrolling. Approximately 15-20 soldiers and 3-4 military vehicles were sent for the intersection. Barriers and fences were used to control passing Palestinians, and many of them were escorted across the street by armed soldiers.
Besides the soldiers and vehicles present on the road, a few were also using the rooftops of three Palestinian houses in order to surveil the Palestinians.
Israeli occupation forces controlling the mobility of the Palestinians
After 9.30 PM the settlers were no longer using the roads, and some military staff left. The Al Khalil team concluded that the situation was under control, and that no Palestinian civilians were hurt by soldiers or Israeli settlers.
The military intervention of prayer road takes place every Friday in Al Khalil, and is one of the many actions developed to control Palestinian access and mobility inside the city.
20th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Hebron, occupied Palestine
Last Friday, 18th of August, during a protest in front of checkpoint 56 in Hebron, a group of young Palestinians were demonstrating against the illegal occupation of Palestine.
Israeli soldiers illegally patrolling the H1 area
The Israeli forces violently dispersed the crowd, by illegally entering the H1 area in Hebron (al-Khalil). At least 30 soldiers went out of the checkpoint into the H1 area. The division of Hebron was established in the Hebron Agreement, and divided Hebron into two areas; H1, supposedly under full control of the Palestinian authority, and H2, under Israeli authority.
Around 3 PM the Israeli soldiers exited the checkpoint and entered H1, where they suppressed the protesters by throwing stun grenades and illegally started patrolling the H1 area while using private Palestinian properties for surveillance. During this time, the checkpoint was closed off, which severely affected the mobility of the Palestinians in the area.
The checkpoint 56 is a hotspot for frequent demonstrations, where the Israeli forces uses stun grenades, teargas, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition against the protesters.
7th August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement | Al-Khalil team, Occupied Hebron
On the evening of Saturday 5th August, a group of 30 to 50 settlers aged between 15 and 30 years old from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba entered the Palestinian neighbourhood Wadi al-Hussein from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba and verbally and physically attacked Palestinians and vandalised the neighbourhood. A member of the Jabari family, a man aged 24 using a mobility scooter, was assaulted and injured by a group of settlers.
Groups of settlers on the main road near Palestinian families Photo credit: Jabari family
The incident began around 9:30 pm on Saturday 5th August when a group of 30 to 50 settlers arrived on the streets of Wadi al-Hussein and started harassing locals. The settlers attacked a 24-year old disabled Palestinian man living near the Kiryat Arba settlement, pushing him off of his mobility scooter and beating him. The man suffered injuries to his leg from the attack. Even though the situation should have required intervention from the Israeli occupation forces, only the Israeli civil administration arrived at the scene.
According to the family of the Palestinian man, they had heard noises near their home and had run down to the street to see what was going on and to find their family member. The family was not able to locate the 24-year old, because the civil administration had transferred him after he was beaten by the settlers. In the street, the family was both verbally and physically assaulted by the settlers. The aggression continued until 2 AM and no Israeli soldiers were at any time present in the neighbourhood to protect the Palestinians living there.
Cars gather during settler attack in al-Khalil Photo credit: Jabari family
As a result, the settlers had free access to the lands of the Jabari family and the rest of the Palestinian neighbourhood. During the hostilities, the settlers not only assaulted people physically and verbally, but also threw stones at Palestinian houses and cars. Thus, many Palestinian families were forced to stay inside their houses during this settler attack. No settlers were arrested after the hostilities and they were allowed to walk back freely to the settlement. It is likely that the attack was a response to the violence the day before on 4th August, in the same neighbourhood, in which four Palestinians and a settler girl were injured after a large group of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians with rocks.
The Wadi Al-Hussain neighbourhood lies next to the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba and suffers from frequent settler violence, daily harassment as well as restrictions imposed on the community by Israel. The Jabari family won a court case last month against the claims from the municipality of Kiryat Arba to pay “Arnona” taxes of 160,000 NIS on the basis that they live within the borders of Israel. Kiryat Arba municipality sent the bill to the family based on the claim that they lived within the administrative borders of the settlement. The Israeli court ruled on 27th of July that the “Arnona” claims were illegal and ought to be canceled. However, the family still struggles to protect their land against settlers, including against the illegally constructed outdoor synagogue named “Hazoun David” that was built on the Jabari family’s land. The settlers walk up to this synagogue twice a day and occupy the area, especially on Saturdays when they celebrate the Sabbath. The Jabari family is only one out of many Palestinian families living under these circumstances in occupied Palestine.
