Tag: Hebron

Raids continue in Hebron, 2 arrested

27 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Like every Saturday, today  a guided Zionist tour passed through the divided old city in Hebron, also referred to as Al Khalil by Palestinians. The tour was escorted by 20 Israeli soldiers and led to a couple of Palestinian arrests without clear justification.

Around 4pm the tour went back to Shuhada street, which has been closed since 1997 to collectively punish Palestinians, and are also denied access the main market area that locals once frequented. The Israeli government and military support frequent incursions into the strictly Palestinian area of the city, commonly referred to as area H1.

As soon as the tour went into Shuhada street, the soldiers began to run to Bab el Baladiya. They then raided the house of the Mohtaseb family, claiming that they were throwing stones although no one witnessed this. The Israeli soldiers blocked access to the house and exited with 2 people arrested, Mohammed and Sheker Bahjat who were then brought to a police car and taken away.

The family lives adjacent to a family of illegal, Israeli settlers. According to Mohammed’s wife, Zuhur, the settlers were throwing stones and water at the house while also breaking windows. Incitement and harassment are not new for this family. Zuhur was detained just a month ago for 8 hours, and both her son and husband are often arrested without evidence or clear charges.

 

Snapshots of Al-Qawasmi home, ripped apart by Israeli military

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Hussein Al-Qawasmi was arrested 10 days ago. Yesterday Qawasmi was escorted back to his home by Israeli soldiers, who claimed there were explosives as well as a memory stick and other forms of information. The family home was ransacked and a section of it was destroyed.

Two sons have been arrested, 2 have been killed, and one is exiled.

His brother Hassan is also held in jail while another family member, 16 year old Abdel Razaq was taken to the Russian Compound, an Israeli court, in West Jerusalem after he returned from his travels outside of the West Bank. He is currently in prison, but his location is unknown. None of the family members were able to reach him.

The mother of Hussein saw her son handcuffed, blindfolded, and beaten as she tried to approach him. The soldiers pushed her back. She suffers from heart conditions and was severely affected and needed medical attention. The soldiers would not allow an ambulance to come, and when she tried to walk down to the road to go to reach the ambulance they blocked her way. Only after the soldiers had left around twelve thirty she was taken to the hospital at that moment in an ambulance full of injured protesters.

She was taken to intensive care in Al Mazan hospital where she remains.

The explosion in the yard blew up all of the windows of the house and burned the grape vines. There was shrapnel found in the yard and the neighboring house was also damaged.

Pedestrian caught between H1, H2, and Israeli military

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

In Al Khalil, commonly referred to as Hebron, international observers received a call about a man being beaten by Israeli military between the H1 and H2 areas of Hebron. H1 is an area densely populated by about 120,000 Palestinians, while H2 has been taken over through military violence by illegal Israeli settlers.

Witnesses say the man had been detained for about an hour and was pushed against the wall repeatedly. When international observers showed up, the soldiers claimed that the man had refused to be searched although he carried no items on him except a small coin pouch and a cell phone.

The following is a video account of the soldier’s and man following the arrival of international observers.

Many injured in Hebron house demolition

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

At 10pm Sunday August 21st the Hasan Ali Darwish Al-Qawasmi house in the Abo Ktelah district was raided and later destroyed by Israeli soldiers. Around eight armored vehicles surrounded the house and at least 40 soldiers were blocking every entrance. The Israeli soldiers had arrived at the house at 8 pm. They told family members that it would take 20 minutes but three and a half hours later they remained in occupation of the house. A row of 14 soldiers blocked the main entrance to the house. Female family members stood in front of them and demanded that they be allowed back into their home.

A family member accounted that Israeli soldiers had already arrested their husbands and were also guilty of the imprisonment of seven brothers and the death of two other brothers of one particular woman. This woman arrived at the house with her baby in her arms to defy and stand up to the Israeli soldiers. After a while the army emerged from the house with a blindfolded and handcuffed man who looked as though he had been beaten.

The soldiers took him away in a jeep. The Israeli soldiers informed the family and other bystanders that a suspected “suspicious object” was in the home that needed to be disposed of, which coincidentally meant exploding a section of the house. Everyone was pushed aside in preparation for the explosion, which took place in the yard of the house. The massive explosion smashed all the windows and damaged a neighbor’s home.

During the raid clashes between Palestinians and the army started, leaving at least 30 injured with the possible rumor that of the injured, one was killed. Details have yet to be confirmed.

The army was shooting a large amount of tear gas directly at protesters and according to witnesses they probably also used rubber coated steel bullets. The Israeli soldiers fled at around midnight and the protestors went to inspect the damaged house. Once being allowed back into the home the family members found their home torn apart. Sofa chairs had been ripped open, picture frames had been smashed and glass lay everywhere. Their home had been destroyed.

Witnesses said that 10 days ago another member of the Al-Qawasmi family had been arrested. On the night of August 20th Israeli soldiers arrested 10 other people in this same neighborhood. This frightful scene concluded with an elderly female relative, who had been trapped in the house during the raid, being carried out on a stretcher by Palestinian ambulances. The ambulances also tended to severely injured protestors.

Night of Israeli violence: Al Aqsa Mosque barricade, house demolition, gang beating, arrests

22 August 2011 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Just after midnight on Monday, August 22  the Israeli military took the opportunity to trap 1500 Palestinian youth inside al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, blow up a house in Hebron (injuring 30 people in the ensuing riots), and arrested a member of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin.

In Jerusalem, thousands of Palestinians gathered to protest the Israeli escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip. Starting from the Bab Al ‘Amoud (Damscus Gate) area and marching toward Salah El Deen Street, the protesters suddenly found themselves under attack by Israeli soldiers after the latter claimed that a soldier had been stabbed. Israeli soldiers and border police closed off the Bab Al Amoud area and Salah El Deen Street and kidnapped several Palestinian youth who were taken to the Al Maskobiyya interrogation center, west of Jerusalem. They also ttacked Palestinian medics and ambulances in the area.

The protesters continued their march into the Old City, prompting hundreds of policemen to break into several homes and cause damage in the area. The protesters ended up inside al-Aqsa mosque, where policemen trapped them inside, closed off the mosque, placed ladders on walls surrounding the mosque, and provoked protesters and those who were simply there to pray and worship during the last ten holy days of Ramadan.

In another incident in Jenin, Israeli soldiers surrounded the Freedom Theater at 2 am, closed off the area, and arrested Mohammed Naghnaghiye, the security guard and technician of the theater. On the way out, they fired live ammunition to disperse the crowd of Palestinians who had gathered.

This is the third attack on the Freedom Theater by the Israeli military this month.

This comes following a daytime attack by a gang of 15 masked settlers of a 10 year old Palestinian boy near Ramallah, outside the settlement of Ramat Migron. The boy is in the hospital being treated for deep wounds.