International Solidarity Movement

by ISM Hebron, February 9th

Around 80 people, Israelis, Palestinians and internationals, gathered by the Abu Aisha family house where a local peace activist explained the difficulties faced by Palestinians in Tel Rumeida and thanked the Israeli activists for coming as a sign of the wish for peace on both sides. In the background we could hear the soundbombs thrown in the Palestinian Authority controlled H1 after the IOF had invaded for the third consecutive day.

We all walked down Tel Rumeida and Shuhada street, chanting slogans for peace and against the Occupation in Hebrew and English. The Palestinian children were stopped by soldiers by the settler school in Shuhada street. The rest of the group continued walking but were harrassed by settlers shouting abuse at us. The activists escorted some Palestinian women to their homes.

One settler tried to drive into the demonstration and when a human rights worker (HRW) filmed him he tried to push the camera out of his hand. He didn’t succeed and drove off slowly while making an obscene gesture at the activists.

The protest ended right after the military base, with the sound of rubber bullets still echoing through the Hebron hills.

Around 14:30 the HRWs decided to go down through checkpoint 56 into the Bab-al-Zawiya market area. At least 30 soldiers were present, shooting teargas and rubber bullets towards groups of Palestinian youth. The invading soldiers chased after the protesting youth, driving them back into King Hussein Street and al-Adel street.

On both streets burning barricades were erected by angry youth. Israeli soldiers ran through the small alleys between the streets to try to surprise the demonstrators while shooting rubber bullets at them. From several rooftops, Palestinians pelted stones at them. Soldiers penetrated further into the city as far as Hebron Municipal Hostipal. They stormed inside to look for the resisting youth, but couldn’t find them.

A group of 12 soldiers went down again to King Hussein street and were confronted by a crowd of about 100 protesting youth, who tried to push back the soldiers by throwing stones. Carts were set on fire as more teargas filled the sky and rubber bullets were shot. The IOF went back to checkpoint 56, but now the checkpoint itself was the target of stones being thrown.

On al-Adel street several burning barricades were erected, as soldiers invaded H1 again. Local residents expressed their anger to HRWs, because for a third day the busy market area had been taken over by Israeli soldiers and daily life disrupted yet again.

As the HRWs went back through checkpoint 56, soldiers again fired teargas into the market area and simultaneously closed the checkpoint. Several small children were no longer able to enter H2 and so were choked by the teargas. The HRWs demanded that the checkpoint be opened immediately. After a few minutes the terrified children could get through.

A few HRWs monitoring checkpoint 56 on the Tel Rumeida side witnessed a young Palestinian man being detained by the military. He had been there for half an hour handcuffed with plastic strips. He had a wound on his forehead and according to a local peace activist had been taken from the street for no reason. Two hours later he was taken away in an army jeep.

by ISM Hebron, February 8th

At around 11.30 this morning a group of soldiers went through checkpoint 56 (the main checkpoint into Tel Rumeida) in response to a demonstration in the Bab Al-Zawiye market area against the excavations damaging the foundations of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

The soldiers went to the top floor of a house overlooking the crowded market and pointed their guns towards the crowded market area. Some Palestinian youth responded by throwing a few small stones at the house. The IOF left the building and chased after them, firing sound bombs and teargas. More soldiers arrived at the scene, now totalling about thirty.

Soldiers yelled at local residents observing the invasion from their windows to go inside. One soldier threatened to arrest a young child for throwing stones but the child replied that he had been playing football.

Some human rights workers (HRWs) followed some soldiers to the top floor of a house but were then prevented from following them onto the roof. The HRWs then observed from a building on the opposite side of King Faisal street. Again the soldiers aimed their guns at the public and soon stones were thrown at them from the street. They reacted by throwing sound grenades down and shot some teargas in the direction of the stone throwers. As the stone throwing continued the IOF on the street then retreated back to checkpoint 56.

Soon after that, another group of 8 soldiers came running from the market area and stopped in front of a building , firing teargas and rubber bullets towards groups of Palestinian youth. Youth on a rooftop began throwing stones and bottles at the arriving soldiers and also threw down a water container.

A group of HRWs then followed the soldiers inside the building from which projectiles were thrown. The public on the street warned the Palestinian youth on the roof the soldiers were coming. As the soldiers were running up the stairs, they tried to prevent the HRWs from following them, but the internationals persisted in documenting the acts of the soldiers. The entrance to the top floor was closed by a steel fence, which the soldiers tried to open by force. They used metal sticks, tried to kick the door open and used their M-16s as crowbars, but they still failed. The soldiers who became quite frustrated went down again. They headed back to checkpoint 56 without making any arrests.

Soldiers continued to patrol the alleyways of the Old City all afternoon, firing sound bombs, tear gas and rubber bullets at local youth.

At around 17:00 two army jeeps were still posted in the Bab-al-Zawiya area. Soldiers were again pelted with stones, and again they shot teargas into the now closed market area. When the HRWs went back through the checkpoint they saw a Palestinian boy of about 14 being detained by the army. He had already been there for about 45 minutes because he had made a remark to the soldiers, according to TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). Moments later he was released.

Meanwhile in Tel Rumeida, when two HRWs were playing football with young Palestinian children on the street, an Israeli settler woman called Sarah Marzel walked by. Sarah Marzel is notorious for giving orders to soldiers and border police to stop Palestinians reaching their homes on the other side of the street or making false allegations about every little detail in the behavior of Palestinians.

Sarah was walking slowly with her stroller back and forth on the same street where the HRWs were playing with children. She continued in this way for 40-50 minutes, and every time she came close the children stopped playing football and waited for her. Even the soldiers found her behaviour odd and when one soldier followed her she complained that the children had tried to attack her baby. She was speaking loudly and pointing at us and the soldier told her that he would talk to us. Thinking it strange that there was no movement or sound coming from the stroller with all the noise and sound bombs in Bab Al Zawiye, an HRW got close enough to see that there was no baby in the stroller, only one thick blanket.

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For coverage from Ma’an click here

from reports by Operation Dove, February 8th

Two Palestinian families near Mnser attacked by a colonist

On the morning of Saturday 20th January about twelve Israeli activists came to accompany farmers plowing their fields near Israeli colonies. Two human rights workers (HRWs) and the Israeli activists went first to Mufagara and then to Kharuba where villagers plowed with four donkeys while soldiers were up by the Ma’on outpost. They saw a few colonists, but there were no problems.

Others went to a small village near Mnser where a colonist attacked the two families living there. Soldiers came and threatened the Israelis who were confronting the colonists. When a ten-year old tried to leave, a soldier fired warning shots into the air and ordered people to stay. The police came and took an Israeli activist’s ID and then went to the Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint against him. The Israeli activist had his ID returned and was released at 6:30pm.

IOF harrassment in Al Birki

On the night of Monday 22nd January soldiers invaded the home of a family in Al Birki, handcuffed and blindfolded the father and three sons, and dropped them off at 3:30am in the morning near Al Fawwar, about 10 miles away. On the morning of Wednesday 24th the family received a call from a DCO Captain (District Coordination Office – the civilian administration wing of the Israeli military in the West Bank), who claimed to be head of intelligence for Shabbak in the Hebron district, demanding that twelve members of the family report to the DCO within half an hour or “I will come with my soldiers and it will be very violent.” Two internationals spent the night with the family, which passed without incident. On Friday 26th the family received another threatening phone call saying that the Red Cross, the journalists, and the foreigners will be of no help to her, that he must bring his entire family immediately to the DCO or there will be big problems.

Palestinian shepherds attacked by colonists near At Tuwani village

On Saturday 3rd February at around 10:30am a Palestinian shepherd on the north side of highway 317 near the colony of Ma’on called for HRWs. There was a gathering of about eight Palestinian men, women and children on the hill opposite Ma’on who recounted the following:

Two young shepherds were herding the flocks of three families when four settlers whose faces were covered, came and began herding the sheep towards the colony. When more family members approached, the colonists threw rocks at them and threatened them with sticks. An IOF jeep came and separated the colonists from the shepherds and their sheep. The colonists returned to Ma’on.

Returning to At Tuwani the HRWs met Israeli police who were passing on the road. The story was reported to the police who asked if anyone was injured and said to call them if there were further problems.