Tag: Hebron

Israeli troops arrest four civilians during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities

09 May 2011 | Palestine News Network

Israeli troops arresting a Palestinian man (PNN)
Four Palestinian civilians were arrested by Israeli soldiers, three from the same family, during morning invasions targeting West Bank communities.

In Beit Sahour, a town in southern West Bank near Bethlehem, soldiers stormed and searched the house of Assi Kassis arrested his wife and mother in addition to him.

Kassis, who works as a construction worker in Israel, went on Sunday to Kifar Atzion military camp to try to renew his army permission to enter Jerusalem.

On Monday at around 2:00 am soldiers stormed his house searched it then searched his brothers’ homes before arresting his Wife Marteen, 35 years old and his mother Rose, 60 years old, witnesses told PNN.

Family members said that soldiers gave no reason for arrest of the family and did not say where they are being held.

Also on Monday in southern West Bank, Israeli soldiers invaded parts of Hebron city and nearby villages. Troops left after arresting Isma’el Jaafra, from Traqumiya village near Hebron.

Bedouin hamlet destroyed for 3rd time

5 May 2011 | Maan News

Women of the Bedouin herding hamlet of Khirbet Amniyr sat on the earth and watched Israeli forces demolish their 12 tent homes for the third time on Thursday morning. The women said they were waiting for the soldiers to leave so they could rebuild their tent homes and once again re-establish their lives and livlihoods.

Amniyr, south of Yatta in the southern West Bank, is said to be located in an Israeli military zone. Military zoning laws enforced by Israel’s Civil Administration, make up part of the 60 percent of the West Bank that is inaccessible to Palestinians.

As the troops left, the woman remained seated, surveying the destruction, as their tents and mattresses lay buried under a thin layer of dirt.

“I appeal to God to save us from the cruelty of the Israeli occupation,” said the hamlet’s matriarch, as she stood and began to collect her belongings from under the dust.

The hamlet has been taken down twice before, first on February 22 when the Israeli military buried homes and water wells, later preventing ICRC workers from delivering aid equipment. On March 29, seven Bedouin were beaten by Israeli border police when the same 12 tents were taken down a second time.

The 12 families of Khirbet Amniyr were ordered out of their tent homes earlier in the year, but remained, saying they had little choice but to stay and had nowhere else to go.

The spokesman of Israel’s Civil Administration could not be reached by phone for comment on the latest demolition.

Amniyr is one of three Bedouin hamlets currently under Israeli evacuation orders, with a second in the south Hebron hills area, and a third in the northern West Bank district of Nablus which has been demolished six times. In Israel’s Negev region, the Bedouin community in Al-Araqib have seen their homes taken down a total of 16 times, to make way for a park.

Beit Ula names garden after slain Italian activist

25 April 2011 | Ma’an News Agency

Hebron’s Youth Development Association re-named a small garden west of the city after murdered Italian activist Vittorio Arrigoni in a Sunday ceremony.

Beit Ula Mayor Rateb Al-Omla presided over the event, thanking the development association for its initiative in commemorating Arrigoni, who was murdered in Gaza City on 15 April.

Organizers invited solidarity activists working in the southern West Bank to the commemoration event, thanking them for their service to the Palestinian people.

A French worker addressed the commemoration ceremony, thanking organizers for their reaffirmation of the strong relationship between the solidarity activists and the Palestinian people.

“Arrigoni supported justice, through his work he contributed to the cause of the Palestinian people, and he will be remembered by the people of this community for his efforts,” Al-Omla said.

Palestinian Authority Minister of Local Government Khalid Qawasmi thanked all of those in attendance on behalf of the PA, saying such events reaffirmed the “authenticity of the Palestinian people in their cries against the brutal act of murder.”

Unprovoked settler attack and military house invasion in Shuhada Street, Hebron

25 April 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Army gathers outside house in Shuhada Street
At approximately 11pm on Sunday 24, two Palestinians were physically beaten, one also attacked with pepper spray, by Israeli settlers in Hebron. Shortly afterwards, a reported 20 Israeli soldiers forcibly entered a house in Shuhada Street and ordered all under 16s out into the street.

According to a man interviewed by the ISM who lived in the house, two Palestinians, a middle-aged woman and a young man, were hit and the young man pepper-sprayed by Israeli settlers in the unprovoked attack. They fled to Checkpoint 56 located at the end of Shuhada Street.

Around 20 Israeli soldiers forcibly entered the Shuhada Street house containing three families which included young children. The soldiers then demanded that all children under 16 leave the house. The families refused this demand. The man interviewed by the ISM was then forcibly removed from his house, pushed up against a wall and searched by the military.

Whilst the two attacked Palestinians were giving their statements to the police at Checkpoint 56, two Israeli settlers, one heavily armed, watched close by. Witnesses from the Shuhada Street house were taken to the police station to give their statements. The ISM is not aware of any Israeli settlers having been questioned by the police.

Protesters in Hebron mark Prisoners Day

17 April 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Remembering Palestinian prisoners in Hebron
Remembering Palestinian prisoners in Hebron

Today, approximately 1,000 protesters in Hebron marked Palestinian Prisoners day with a demonstration calling for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners. At the same time thousands of prisoners joined in a one-day hunger strike to protest their treatment and their legal rights as prisoners.

Protesters in Hebron began by gathering at the Eben Roshd school in Hebron City. Amongst the participants were families of prisoners, members of the Palestinian Authority and international activists. After speeches by family members and local authorities, the demonstration continued with a peaceful march from the school to the Manara square. Protesters carried pictures of imprisoned family members and banners calling for Israel to release prisoners and uphold international laws.

Prisoners Day commemorates the release of Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud Hijazi in the first prisoner exchange between Palestine and Israeli in 1974. According to a report released today by former Palestinian detainee Abdul Nasser Farwana, just about every Palestinian household has had members jailed. According to the report Israel has arrested around 750,000 Palestinians since the six day war in 1967, including nearly 12,000 women and tens of thousands of children

Today over 6,800 Palestinians, from the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and 1948 Palestine, are currently imprisoned by the Israeli state according to ADDAMEER. Of those, over 300 are children, 34 are women, 18 are elected Palestinian representatives and almost 300 are ‘administrative detainees’ – that means that they have been detained without trial not having been charged with any crime or seeing the evidence against them.