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.
22nd August 2017 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Um Al-Kheir, occupied Palestine
Three young Palestinian men were detained by Israeli occupation forces on Friday the 19th of August. The men, residents of the Bedouin community Um Al-Kheir, were held by soldiers for two hours and forced to sit against the fence bordering up to the neighbouring illegal settlement. Four armed soldiers pushed back the surrounding crowd, including the members from the ISM team in Al-Khalil.
Soldiers detaining three Palestinian men
On Sunday evening, members from the Al-Khalil team travelled to the small village of Um Al-Kheir, located right next to the illegal settlement Carmel in the South Hebron Hills. On arrival, a military vehicle was stationed by the road leading to the village, with three men being detained by the military forces. The detained men were Akram Hathaleen (21 years old), Aala Hathaleen (20 years old) and Mahmoud (33 years old).
Soldiers pushing the villagers back
According to the four soldiers, one of the young men had climbed the fence to Carmel, which is an unlikely scenario due to the razor wire surrounding the Israeli illegal settlement. The locals stressed that the man simply tried to access the agricultural land belonging to their community.
Israeli soldier controlling the villagers
After approximately two hours the men were set free, with one of the men being ordered to report to the police station in Kiryat Arba the following day.
Military presence has been prevalent lately in and around Um Al-Kheir due to a strict demolition order. Out of the 70 structures belonging to the village, only two of them will remain after the military carries out the order and destroys the houses. Naturally, this means the end of a village belonging to a Bedouin community which has lived in the area for generations.
What remains of a demolished home in Umm Al-Kheir
The village has faced demolitions almost every year since 2008, with water networks and up to 17 structures being destroyed annually. Settlers of Carmel frequently survey the community with drones to spot construction and send the footage to the Israeli civil administration.
Because of the small distance to Carmel Settlement, Um Al-Kheir lost more and more access to their land over time. Despite being founded as a military outpost in 1980, the first settlers moved in around 2008. In 2012 they occupied a nearby mountain, where the shepherds now need a permission to cross with their herds. Because of the rapid expansion of the settlement, the time to access the grassing lands has increased from five minutes to close to an hour.
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, Huwwara-team | Nabi Saleh, occupied Palestine
On 23rd July, two days after the killing of three settlers from the illegal settlement of Halamish, settlers blocked Route 450 with self-made barricades preventing Palestinians from using the main road, which connects Nabi Saleh village with the south Baytillu.
The road blockade was built at the roundabout in the south of Nabi Saleh, where Route 465 goes into Route 450 and was accompanied by the building of an new illegal settler outpost on the land of Nabi Saleh. According to eyewitnesses settlers were since then seen dancing and sitting behind the self made blockades to overlook their illegal roadblock. Exclusively settler-cars and army vehicles have been allowed to cross the blockade, thus enforcing a racist roadblock only on Palestinians. Route 450 is one of the main connecting roads from the Salfit area to Ramallah and is used as an everyday passage for students at the Birzeit university and farmers to reach their land. The normally twelve minutes ride from Baytillu to Nabi Saleh now, given the roadblock, takes one and a half hour as Palestinians are forced to make a detour through Ramallah to reach their destination. And not just Baytillu is affected by this: the people from the surrounding villages Jamala, Deir ´Ammar, Deir ´Ammar Camp and Deir Nidham next to Nabi Saleh are heavily restricted in their movement, because of the closed street segment, which is now just accessible for settlers from the illegal settlements Halamish, Nahiel, Talmon and Dolev.
Roadblock at Korba
The settlers are supported by the Israeli occupation forces wh just recently installed metal gates on Route 450 at the entrance of Baytillu and close to the illegal Halamish settlement. Therefore, the inhabitants of Baytillu fear that this will be a permanent roadblock and their land will be confiscated by settlers.
Around 10.000 dunums of Baytillu land is cut off from their owners, as well as a spring, which is essential for the farmers in the area. Moreover nine houses are located behind the road gates, which means the inhabitants can only reach their houses by foot and are forced to leave their cars at the gate in Baytillu.
With the olive harvest coming up in a month, accessing the crops is crucial for the farmers. The DCO, which is responsible for coordination between Palestinians and the occupying power Israel,postponed a scheduled meeting to discuss the road blockades without setting up a new date.
The case of Route 450 however is far from the only one of its kind: the blocking of roads is a common means of control by the occupation forces to limit the movement of inhabitants in Area C. Likewise the connecting road between Baytillu and Korba, also a path used by farmers for agricultural purposes was closed off recently.
Roadblock Baytillu
Both blockades limit the freedom of movement and the access to farmland in the area, often also enforced as a measure of collective punishment. In this particular case the Israeli forces blocked off the whole village of Korba with several street blockades at every entrance of the village after the killing of three settlers in Halamish. Furthermore the COGAT (Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories) decided on the punitive house demolition of the family house [comment: house demolition was carried out in the night from Wednesday the 16th August to Thursday at 01:30 am accompanied by soldiers using rubber coated steel bullets against protesters and causing casualties] from the 19 year old Omar al-Abed, who is accused of stabbing the three setters, as well as arrested several members of his family, accusing them of not preventing the young man from carrying out the act.
Punitive demolition measurements are against Article 33 of the fourth Geneva Convention, which was ratified 1951 by Israel: “No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited. Pillage is prohibited. Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.”
These cases illustrate again how the illegal settlers in the West Bank enjoy complete impunity for their actions under the protection of the Israeli occupying forces, who act brutally against the civilian population in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
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.
