13th June 2014 | Operation Dove | Jinba and Al Mirkez, Occupied Palestine
From the 8th June until three hours ago, the Israeli military has been training in Palestinian-owned fields, close to the Palestinian villages of Jinba and Al Mirkez, in Masafer Yatta.
Photo by Operation Dove
Hundreds of soldiers have occupied the land in front of the nearby Israeli military base with tents and military equipment, and were scattered in groups around the villages to carry out the exercises.
During the training, the Palestinian population suffered heavy restrictions on their freedom of movement, the fields were damaged by military activities, and shepherds were chased away with their flocks.
Some of these farmers reported that they were beaten by the soldiers.
During the night, the exercises continued with the use of explosives, and soldiers have even entered the villages themselves, frightening the people further.
The villages of Jinba and Al Mirkez are within the Firing Zone 918 and, pending the decision of the Israeli High Court of Justice, are still under the threat of expulsion by the Israeli army.
29th May 2014 | Operation Dove | At-Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
Photo by Operation Dove
On May 27th, four Palestinian 12-14 years old girls from the South Hebron hills villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed were arrested by the Israeli police on the charge of theft of cherries in a field in which Israeli settlers from Ma’on settlement are growing several cherry trees.
This grove is situated close to the place in which the children usually wait for an Israeli military escort, in order to go home. The escort was established in 2004 by the Children’s Rights Committee of the Knesset because of the ongoing attacks against the Palestinian children (coming from the nearby villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed to the school of At Tuwani) from Havat Ma’on and Ma’on settlers.
At 11.00 am, while the children were walking accompanied by the Israeli military, a car with a few settlers inside stopped in the middle of the street, avoiding the possibility for the children to continue the path. Israeli settlers stated that some children had stolen cherries from the grove.
So, the Israeli soldiers forced the children to sit down on the road under a hot sun without any access to water, preventing them from going home.
The Palestinian children asked the Israeli soldiers to show some evidence supporting the accusation that the settlers madeagainst them, they wanted to see videos and photos supporting, but the Israeli army didn’t give them any information. Some minutes later, also the Ma’on security coordinator arrived where the children were stopped, accusing them of theft, even though he wasn’t present at the moment the supposed event occurred.
At 11:50 am the Israeli Police arrived. The police officer asked one settler if he recognized the children that he saw in the cherry trees fields. The settlers identified four young girls. The girls were then forced to go in the Israeli police car.
The other students were accompanied along the path by the Israeli army.
The four young girls were detained in the police car for one hour. Then the girls were taken to the Israeli Police station of Kiryat Arba and brought for interrogation, without their parents being present.
According to +972 magazine the lawyer who is representing the minors spoke with the police on the phone and she was told that two girls were released once their parents were contacted (one is 12 years old, the other seems to have speech disabilities). The two others were being held for questioning and released later. According to Haggai Matar, “it would be illegal for the police to question them without the presence of their parents”.
At 4:00 pm the Israeli police sent them to the Palestinian police in Hebron, that didn’t want to release them until their family identified them. So, at around 7:00 pm, the girls were released.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[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.]
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the Attorney General to seriously open an investigation into incidents that took place in Yatta town near Hebron on Monday, 05 May 2014. The incidents included beatings, arrests, house raids, and destruction of civilians’ belongings by security services. PCHR calls upon the government in Ramallah to take serious steps to compel members of security services to respect the rule of law and human rights principles that are guaranteed under the Palestinian Basic Law and international standards.
According to investigations conducted by PCHR and testimonies of victims and eyewitnesses, at approximately 09:00 on Monday, 05 May 2014, a force from the Preventive Security Service (PSS) intercepted a Chevrolet Cavalier red car near Mothalath al-Mazra’a area in Yatta town in Hebron because of raising Hamas’ flags. Mohammed Awdatallah Abu Fanar (22) was driving the aforementioned car with his wife Hanadi (20), his two daughters, and three young relatives: Noor Ismail Abu Fanar (14), Asem Mosa Abu Fanar (14), and Zakareya Ismail Abu Fanar (17). They were on their way to participate in a set-in organized in solidarity with their relative, Zaid Ismail Abu Fanar, in his father’s house in Fatouh area in the town. Zaid Ismail Abu Fanar is one of the administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, who have been on hunger strike since 24 April 2014. PSC officers ordered the aforementioned persons to get out of the car, but the driver, Mohammed, moved away quickly when Noor got out. The PSC officers chased Abu Fanar’s car via a Volkswagen mini bus to about 3 Kilometers until they reached Fatouh area. The PSC bus hit Abu Fanar’s car several times from the back in an attempt to stop it until Abu Fanar’s car crashed into the wall. The PSC officers got out of their car, took Mohammed out of his car, and started beating him severely with their legs and rifles. His wife, Hanadi, tried to defend him, but they pushed her. As a result, she fell to the ground and fainted. Some civilians tried to intervene in an attempt to push the PSS officers away from Abu Fanar family, but they opened fire to disperse the civilians who threw stones at the PSS members. As result, the PSC car was crashed.
A joint force of security services comprised of the PSS, the National Security Force, and Special Police raided Fatouh area in Yatta town accompanied by a bulldozer. They raided and searched a number of civilian houses, from which they arrested a large number of civilians. Hana Saher Awad was beaten up by the security members after they raided and searched her house without a warrant. Members of the force crashed a number of Mercedes cars belonging to civilians in the area, including a 608 Mercedes white bus belonging to Ismail Sameh Abu Fanar. In addition, the bulldozer caused damage to a number of unlicensed cars which are used by mechanics for spare parts.
On the same day, at approximately 22:00, a joint force raided Ismail Abu Fanar’s house in Zeif area in Hebron, where the solidarity tent is set up in solidarity of his son Zaid. They dispersed all people in the tent by firing live bullets in the air and tear gas canisters. Abu Fanar was beaten up with a torch by the security officers.
On Tuesday, 06 May 2014, four civilians were released while 20 ones have been so far in custody.
In light of the above, PCHR:
Calls upon the Attorney General to open a serious investigation into those incidents, especially that civilians were beaten and some belongings were damaged; and
Calls upon the government in Ramallah to take serious steps to compel members of security services to respect the rule of law and human rights principles that are guaranteed under the Palestinian Basic Law and international standards.
14th April 2014 | Operation Dove | At-Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
On April 11 an international volunteer was attacked and injured by Israeli army, while coming back from accompanying Palestinian shepherds near Susiya.
The Palestinian village of Susiya is surrounded by the Israeli settlement of Suseya, the outpost of Suseya’s Ancient Synagogue and the military base of Suseya North, where the Palestinian shepherds were nearby grazing. The Palestinian inhabitants of Susiya are struggling through the nonviolent popular resistance in order to gain the right to access their own lands and to live a dignified life.
At 14:10 pm, two international volunteers were leaving the place after having accompanied four Palestinian shepherds to graze on their own lands. They had just got in the stopped car on the street that connects Susiya and Yatta (where two other internationals were waiting for them), when two Israeli soldiers arrived from the military base and intimated them to get out from the car.
While the group was standing near the street, two army vehicles approached. As soon as the second vehicle arrived, the soldiers got immediately out from the jeep. The commander and four more soldiers physically blocked one international and tried to grab his camera, to handcuff him and to put him into the jeep, tugging at him and beating him. In the meanwhile other soldiers blocked the other volunteers, preventing them from taping as best the aggression that lasted for 13 minutes.
Because of the attack, the international volunteer was injured. He had a bleeding wound on his elbow and he received a hard blow on the lower abdomen, whereby the intervention of the ambulance was needed. The soldiers also tried to block the doctors to prevent the injured to get into the ambulance, until the Israeli Police came and gave the permission to leave.
The volunteer attacked was hospitalized in Yatta and the other three were detained in Kiryat Arba Police station and released after five hours. The Police held all the videos of the incident to investigate on it and the three internationals were given expulsion orders from South Hebron Hills area for 14 to 16 days.
Photo by Operation Dove
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[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.]
3rd April 2014 | Operation Dove | At-Tuwani, Occupied Palestine
On April 2 the Israeli army together with some Border Police and District Coordination Office (DCO) officers demolished six shelters made of concrete in the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani.
At 9:20 am a convoy made up of one bulldozer, two army Jeeps, three Border Police vehicles, and two DCO cars entered the Palestinian village of Al Mufaqarah. The convoy passed through and reached the hills surrounding the gravel road that connects the Palestinian village of Al Mufaqarah to the village of At Tuwani. The area is Palestinian private land, cultivated with wheat and olive trees. On those fields the Palestinian owners from At-Tuwani in the past three years had built shelters made of concrete, in order to have a backing place during the harvest seasons when Palestinian families work hard for entire days under hot sunbeams.
Under the directions of DCO officers six shelters were demolished by the bulldozer; two of those were already completed and two others still under construction. On March 2, a DCO officer had come to the area and took pictures of the shelters but no demolition order was delivered.
At 10:10 am the convoy left. Palestinian inhabitants of Al Mufaqarah, the owners of the shelters, B’tselem operators and international volunteers were present on the place.
At-Tuwani and Al Mufaqarah villages are located in Area C, under Israeli military and administrative control. That means that all the constructions must be approved by the Israeli administration. Israel denies Palestinians the right to build on the 70 percent of Area C, which is about the 44 percent of all the West Bank, while within the remaining 30 percent a series of restrictions are applied in order to prevent Palestinians from the possibility of obtaining permits (source: OCHA oPt).
While the Palestinian and Bedouin villages of Area C suffer from Israel’s ongoing policy of demolitions and threats, the nearby outposts and settlements continue to expand. The Israeli illegal outpost of Avigayil since three years has been expanding in south-east direction with new houses and a fence that annexes always more Palestinian land. The Israeli illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on is always expanding despite continuos complaints from Israeli activists and International volunteers who fornish proofs of the works. The Israeli settlements of Ma’on and Karmel are expanding in particular since the Israeli government’s planning commitee approved the construction of 5170 new units in West Bank settlements in the spring of 2013. In the beginning of February 2014 a new fence was built around the south-eastern side of Ma’on, annexing even more meters of Palestinian owned land.
Photo by Operation Dove
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[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.]
