Tag: Hebron

Hebron experiences more settler violence

1st April 2010 | International Solidarity Movement / Ma’an News Agency

According to Ma’an News Agency, in the past 48 hours the residents of Hebron have suffered a number of attacks by settlers. On Thursday a three year old girl was hospitalised in a hit-an-run attack by a settler car, outside the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque. Witnesses apparently report that the Israeli army was present at the time of the incident. This is the third time in March that Israeli settlers have hit Palestinians in their cars before fleeing the scene. Also on Thursday, settlers destroyed the contents of a store in the Jaber neighborhood and damaged a Palestinian home in Tel Rumeida in central Hebron. Today settlers also set fire to the front of a shop on Shalala Street.

Israeli settler stabs Palestinian in At-Tuwani

21 March 2011 | Operation Dove

At-Tuwani – On the morning of March 21st, 2011 soon after 7 o’clock a Palestinian man from the village of Tuba was attacked while he was going with his donkey to the village of At-Tuwani. Not far from the first house of the village a masked settler, coming from the Havat Ma’on outpost, ambushed him and stabbed him in his right arm and in his chest.

An inhabitant of At-Tuwani witnessed the incident from a close distance and immediately informed the other inhabitants and the internationals present in the village . The Palestinian stabbed was treated and transported to the hospital in Hebron, while the soldiers and the Israeli police questioned the witnesses and gathered evidence. The Palestinian who witnessed the attack claims he recognized the assailant, one of the settlers who took part to the riots on March 19th, 2011 in At-Tuwani (http://snipurl.com/27o3a8).

At press time the Palestinian wounded is stable.

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Operation Dove maintains an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Provocations and attacks by Israeli settlers obstruct Palestinian nonviolent action in the South Hebron Hills: two Palestinians are arrested

19 March 2011 | Operation Dove

At-Tuwani – Saturday morning, around 9:00 am, during a nonviolent action, the inhabitants of At-Tuwani, accompanied by several international, planted some olive trees in Palestinian-owned Humra valley. In addition, during the action some shepherds of the village decided to graze their flocks in the area.

Immediately, several Israeli army jeep reached the area to monitor the situation. Soon after, settlers from the Havat Ma’on outpost, some of them masked, began to approach and provoke the Palestinians. They walked among their flocks and close to the women who were gathering herbs in the fields. At about 10:30, three young settlers chased a Palestinian man who was returning home with his donkey through Meshaha hill. Luckily, the Palestinian man was just scared by the settlers. The action could still be carried out successfully despite the provocations and the tension due to the presence of about twenty settlers.

The soldiers tried to keep the settlers away, repeatedly asking them to return in the outpost. At around 10:50 an officer of the Border Police brought an evacuation order declaring the zone “closed military area“. The Palestinians, after some protests, went back to At-Tuwani. The settlers returned in the outpost, they splitted in two groups: some of them attacked the Palestinians and their flocks on their way back to the village, while others headed toward At-Tuwani masked and accompanied by dogs, threatening the house closest to the outpost.

The situation deteriorated and some Palestinians replied to the settlers’ attacks defending themselves. The soldiers tried to force the Palestinians back to the village and during the riots they launched two sound bombs. Two young Palestinians were arrested and a third, after being pinned to the ground by several soldiers, felt faint and went by ambulance to the hospital in Yatta. The other inhabitants of At-Tuwani and all the internationals were forced by soldiers to return to the village.

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Operation Dove and Christian Peacemaker Teams have maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Settlers torch Palestinian car in Tel Rumeida, Hebron

12 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Soldiers speak to family of the owner of the torched car
At 8 PM tonight Palestinians living in the Tel Rumeida settlement, Hebron, discovered a flaming car parked just outside H2 that had been torched by settlers. They called the fire department, and ISM activists came to document the scene soon after the fire had been put out. No pictures were taken of the car while it was in flames, but witnesses say that earlier today they filmed seven or eight settlers walking up on the hill that appeared to be studying the area.

Hani Abu Haikal and other residents of Tel Rumeida who have previously witnessed the method in which settlers torch cars, say settlers probably dumped lighter fluid on the trunk of the of the car and set it aflame, then broke the windows so that the fire caused an explosion.

The owner of the car is currently in Saudi Arabia on business and his brother was unable to reach him by phone. Shortly after ISM activists arrived, soldiers came to investigate and asked that everyone except the–absent–owner of the car leave. Activists and Palestinians documenting the scene remained despite their insistance.

According to Hani, this is the 7th car to be torched in Tel Rumeida within the last five years. The attack is probably a response to the murder of a settler family in the illegal settlement Itamar in the northern West Bank. Settler groups have accused Palestinians of being responsible for the attack, but the killer has yet to be identified.

Hebron witnesses increase in settler harassment following al-Shuhada street demonstration

02 March 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Sunday a shop in Tel Rumeida was attacked by a middle-aged settler who smashed the shop’s window with a stick. Of the two shopkeepers inside, one was disabled in a wheelchair. The other went out and was then attacked by the settler. Soldiers from the nearby checkpoint did not aid or intervene on behalf of the shopkeeper. When ISM arrived at the site, nearly 20 soldiers were pushing away the palestinians near the shop, while allowing settlers to pass. A Palestinian teenager was arrested and brought in for questioning. He was released the same night.  

On monday about 50 settlers bearing arms held a demonstration. They gathered at the same shop to pray, claiming that it was a settler who had been attacked there the day before by a Palestinian. No Palestinians were on the streets, and they warned ISMers to hide on the roof for fear of settler violence. When the procession left the street, three settlers remained under the protection of soldiers to antagonize Palestinians as they came down from there houses. At that point a soldier blocked road access for TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron) and other international organizations. A settler pushed an international, and a soldier removed that international from the scene. Half an hour later the procession returned to the site for another prayer, once again blocking Palestinian access to the street. Finally, according to locals, two Palestinian men were arrested and a third was detained for two hours after making a complaint.