Tag: H2 - Page 2 - International Solidarity Movement

Soldiers invade two Palestinian houses – for training only

25th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Khalil | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

Last night, Israeli occupation soldiers invaded two houses in Tel Rumeida, Hebron, one being the Sumud house and the headquarters of the Palestinian human rights organisation Youth Against Settlements.

Israeli soldier climbing fence surrounding the Palestinian home. The door was unlocked the entire time (Photo by ISM)

At 21:15 pm three groups consisting of four Israeli soldiers each invaded the Sumud house from different directions. The heavily armed soldiers took the residents of the house completely by suprise, as they had been sneaking through the nearby olive groves. After harrassing the people at the Sumud house and creating some mess, the soldiers retreated into the olive groves, only to invade the neighbouring house’s backgarden using the latter to climb over the wall surrounding the property. The aim of the exercise is unclear but soldiers seemed to have practised how to break into a house.

Activists from Youth Against Settlements as well as the International Solidarity Movement who were present at the scene strongly believe the invasion to have been a training exercise, as the soldiers could not show a court order justifying the invasion, nor did they arrest anyone. The precise goal and nature of the exercise remain unclear. By 22pm, all soldiers had gone, leaving a trail of confusion and broken property.

Among the broken property was the Sumud house Argile (Photo by ISM)

Although this is the first time the Sumud house has been targeted in what is clearly a training excersise, such incidents are not uncommon in the H2 area of Hebron, where 35,000 Palestinians live under the constant presence and control of a couple of thousand Israeli soldiers. “I am not training material. I am not an object,” local human rights activist Issa Amro commented after the incident. Amro subsequently called the Israeli DCO (District Coordination Office), which did not seem to know about the harrasment and were unable to offer any explanation for the invasion of the two houses.

In spite of Ramadan, weekly settlers’ ‘tour’ invades Hebron once again

16th July 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

On Saturday the 13^th of July about forty settlers on a settler ‘tour’ once again strolled through the Old City of Al Khalil (Hebron).

Today they were joined by almost as many soldiers from the Israeli army, Israeli Border Police and Israeli police force. The occupation forces kept blocking the streets, forcing local Palestinians working or shopping to use longer alternative routes or wait behind for the full hour the tour lasted.

Almost as many soldiers as illegal settlers disrupted the daily life of the local Palestinians in the streets of Al Khalil/Hebron (Photo by ISM)

Around 1.30 pm the settler tour was preceded by the army invading a private Palestinian home and occupying their rooftop. The ‘tour’ went on through the streets of the Palestinian neighbourhoods while the heavily armed soldiers escorting the illegal settlers and Zionist tourists controlled how close the international observers could get, to the point of threatening to throw tear gas grenades. Meanwhile soldiers prevented Palestinian men, women and children from moving through their own streets and tried to expel children from their own neighborhood. At one point a young boy tried to get through with a cart, coming from one of the shops where he was helping with work, but not even he was allowed to pass by the tour. As the settlers moved through the Palestinian residential areas, the soldiers kept intruding into Palestinian homes to enter their rooftops.

Today the settlers’ tour followed a different route than in previous weeks, following narrow streets within the old city. Four Border Police officers remained at the back of the group, keeping international observers at a long distance from the settler group, effectively preventing much observation of the settlers’ behaviour as they entered the old city. As people started to gather behind the ‘tour’, waiting to enter homes and shops one of these officers took out a camera and started filming the Palestinian children and the international observers. At no point were people allowed to pass the settler group.

The soldiers wouldn't let this young boy trough despite obviously interrupting his working routine (Photo by ISM) — The soldiers wouldn’t let this young boy trough despite obviously interrupting his working routine (Photo by ISM)

This weekly “tour” of Hebron disturbs the daily lives of Palestinians in the busy Souq of Hebron, which has seen an extreme decrease in trade since the Israeli occupation forces closed Shuhada street, which was formerly Hebron’s busiest market. Rather than closing the Souq, where there are several illegal Israeli settlements, Palestinian residents think the Israeli forces are trying to make life there as uncomfortable as possible and thus pressure them to move out of the area.

Two men arrested and a woman hospitalised in Hebron house raid

3rd June 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Khalil Team | Hebron, Occupied Palestine

A 58 year-old Palestinian man and his 28 year-old son were arrested and his wife hospitalised after Israeli soldiers invaded their home, smashing furniture and breaking electronic goods over a three hour period. Four more houses within the same building were also ransacked.

Yesterday at around 2.30pm, at least ten soldiers invaded the home of Mohammed Fathi Jabari (58) on the Western Prayer Road in the Israeli-controlled H2 area of Hebron. During the incident, the soldiers forced the residents all into one room and compelled them to give up their phones. Mohammed Fathi Jabari and his son were then arrested in their home. Despite numerous police and army personnel remaining in the area, the family was given no information regarding the whereabouts of their father and son or the reason for their arrest. Mohammed was released hours later but his son is still being held. Mahera Jabari (49), Mohammed’s wife, who already had heart problems, was hospitalized due to the stress of the situation.

During the raid the soldiers kicked down the door to the building and ransacked the rooms of the five homes within. In the first home the soldiers invaded, they kicked down a door and threw a young boy of 10 years old against a wall, causing bruising to his shoulder. International observers interviewed family members from all the homes, who showed them the mayhem created: a broken laptop, a huge chest with the top torn clean off, rooms completely ransacked including one where six children slept, and many broken doors. Contents of drawers, wardrobes and cupboards were strewn across the floor, including clothes, bedding and children’s toys.

Five soldiers escort Jabari to the police van (Photo by ISM)

Broken furniture and clothes strewn across the floor by soldiers (Photo by ISM)

17 year old youth arrested in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

by Team Khalil

7 January 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

A 17 year old youth was arrested and 2 others, including a 13 year old boy, were detained at checkpoint 56 in Tel Rumeida, Hebron.

At around 8 pm on 7th February Israeli occupation forces soldiers detained three men, accusing them of throwing stones at the checkpoint. After an hour Munir Zehdeh, 17, was arrested and taken in an army jeep to the police station at Givat Havot, near Kiyrat Arba in Hebron.

The other two Palestinians detained, one 25 year old from the Sharabati family and the other 13 year old from the Atrash family, were released without any charges after being held for an hour.

This is the second such incident at this checkpoint in consecutive days. People at the scene claimed that no one had thrown stones at the checkpoint. In the incident that happened the day before a 14 year old boy was detained for throwing stones when he was on a family visit with his mother. Bystanders said that the soldiers lie about youths throwing stones at them to arbitrarily detain Palestinians for no other reason than to harass them.

Checkpoint 56 is located on the boundary between the H1 Palestinian controlled area, and the H2 Israeli controlled area of Hebron, at the end of Shuhada Street. This checkpoint is the main entrance for Palestinians to access Tel Rumeida and is often closed on the whim of the soldiers stationed there. The soldiers regularly abuse Palestinians’ rights to freedom of movement and routinely harass people passing through the checkpoint, making men take off their belts to pass through the metal detector and searching peoples’ bags at gunpoint. This customary harassment increases tensions in this volatile location, close to where there are illegal Israeli settlements in the centre of a Palestinian city. Checkpoint 56 was the focus of Palestinians anger during the clashes between the shebab and Israeli occupation forces during the November 2012 Israeli assault on Gaza, and after Mohammad Ziad Awwad Salayme was murdered by the Israeli occupation forces on his 17th birthday near the other end of Shuhada street from Checkpoint 56.

The arrest of a 17 year old youth in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

Team Khalil is a group of volunteers of International Solidarity Movement based in Hebron (al Khalil)

14 year old boy detained in Hebron

by Team Khalil

7 February 2013 | International Solidarity Movement, Hebron, Occupied Palestine

A 14 year old boy was detained at checkpoint 56 in Tel Rumeida, Hebron.

At 2 pm on 6th February Amir Ibrahim Shawar was taken by soldiers of the Israeli occupation forces near the Jewish cemetery in Tel Rumeida, Hebron. He was accused of throwing stones at the soldiers, he was then marched down to the checkpoint where he was detained for about an hour. Amir from Azaria near Jerusalem was on a family visit with his mother when the incident happened.

Whilst at the checkpoint the soldiers said to Amir’s mother, “We know he is not guilty but we want him to tell us who threw the stones”.

Members of the local community came to the checkpoint to complain about his detention and filmed the incident to help deter the soldiers from any unnecessary abuse of the teenager. One person filming the incident had his ID checked by a soldier. At one point Amir was grabbed by his coat and forced inside the checkpoint out of sight of his mother and family members causing concern about the boy’s welfare.

The Palestinian police were called to the scene and Amir was handed over to them and taken through the checkpoint into Palestinian controlled H1 area of Hebron. He was questioned by Palestinian police and then released.

Team Khalil is a group of volunteers of International Solidarity Movement based in Hebron (al Khalil)