Tag: Yatta

Israel continues to besiege Palestinian towns, breach international law in occupied West Bank

3rd July 2016 | International Solidarity Movement, al-Khalil team | Occupied Hebron

In the last three days Israeli military forces have implemented several blockades isolating the cities of Yatta and Bani Na’im south of Hebron. It is reported that cement roadblocks, earth mounds, gates and checkpoints have been installed across the region, with no timeline for when they may be removed.

The blockades are only implemented to restrict the movement of Palestinians as illegal Israeli settlers can still pass the checkpoints. This discrimination is a clear apartheid strategy and limits Palestinians to not only being unable to attend work but also reaching basic human services such as hospitals. This strategy clearly violates Palestinian’s right to freedom of movement (Art.13 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

By enforcing these illegal blockades Israel is also restricting Palestinian movement during the final days of the holy month of Ramadan where thousands of Muslims wish to travel to the most significant religious sites for prayer and visit their families.

This act is also another example of Israel using collective punishment techniques, which are also illegal under international law. Israeli forces continually use collective punishment in the form of revoking travel and work permits, blockading cities and punitive house demolitions.

Operation Dove have compiled the following interactive map to illustrate the extent of the blockade.

The innocent people who are living under siege in Yatta and Bani Na’im are significantly impacted by the Israeli forces implementing such blockades, which have been condemned internationally by human rights organisations and NGOs.

PCHR calls for investigations into incidents in Yatta town

8th May 2014 | Palestinian Center for Human Rights | Yatta, Occupied Palestine

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.

Palestinian woman seriously injured in settlers’ attack

11 April 2012 | The Palestinian Information Center

AL-KHALIL, (PIC)– A Palestinian woman was hospitalized with serious injuries in her head after a group of Jewish settlers attacked her near Yatta village, south of Al-Khalil.

An eyewitness said that 40-year-old Samiha Nawaja was attacked by a group of masked Jewish settlers from the nearby settlement of Susiya.

He said that Israeli occupation soldiers escorted the settlers away from the scene of the incident back into the settlement after Palestinian citizens came to the yells of the woman.

Malek Ghannam, working with the Palestinian Red Crescent, said that the woman was taken to a clinic in Yatta then to a hospital in Al-Khalil in view of seriousness of her injury.

Jewish settlers have recently escalated their attacks on inhabitants of the eastern areas of Yatta in a bid to terrorize them away from their land. Some of those attacks were documented by camera.

Israeli troops kill a Palestinian youth; Injures and arrest another

by Ghassan Bannoura

8 March 2012 | International Middle East Media Center

Twenty-two years old Zakariay Abu Iram was killed while Mohamed Rashid, 18, was injured and arrested by Israeli troops as they attacked the southern West Bank village of Yatta on Thursday afternoon.

Residents told IMEMC that Israeli troops stormed the village and tried to arrest Khalied Makhamreh. He is a Palestinian political prisoner that got released from Israeli military detention last October as part of the Egyptian mediated swap deal between Palestinian groups and Israel.

“ Soldiers stormed the house of the released prisoner to arrest him. All the village rushed to stop the military.” Mohamed from Yatta who witnessed the attack told IMEMC.

The Israeli military said that one soldier was stabbed by youth before troops opened fire killing Abu Iram and injuring Rashid. “ I did not see anybody who even tried to stab the soldier” Mohamed told IMEMC.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced that Zakariay Abu Iram was shot in the head and died on location while Mohamed Rashid got hit with a bullet in his abdomen.

Medics added soldiers did not allow them to help Rashid at first but later troops allowed medics to give him first aid after leaving him to bleed on the ground for some time. Troops then arrested Rashid and took him to an Israeli military hospital.

Thirteen homes and three school buildings destroyed by Israeli forces

12 January 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Dkaika children outside their destroyed classroom

More than 13 homes and three school buildings were bulldozed this morning by occupation forces in the small Bedouin village of Dkaika near Yatta south of Hebron. One eye witness – an English teacher at the school – said “the Israeli army arrived at the village at around 7:30am with over fifty military vehicles and at least six bulldozers before forcibly removing the children from the school and destroying three classrooms.” He went on, “the children, some of whom are as young as seven years old, were crying and shouting at the soldiers to stop.”

In addition to the destruction wrought upon the school, ISM representatives were led by the crushed earthen tracks and violent gouge marks left by bulldozers to the tell tale piles of rubble and twisted steel which littered the surrounding area. If there had been any doubt that each had once been a home, then the hurriedly assembled mounds of personal possessions, furniture, and children’s toys which accompanied each pile of rubble surely testified to the fact that these were dwellings.

As it was, there were plenty of family members eager to testify themselves, and in the moments following the re-opening of the village’s only road, EAPPI and ISM members– who had been prevented by road blocks from accessing the scene – moved in to speak to those left homeless by the action.

When asked what reason was given for the demolition, the above witness, visibly upset, replied “they do not want us to live here, that is the reason. I would like to tell you that this community has been here since before the establishment of the Israeli [state]. They took most of our land during the Nakba and they would like to dismiss us from here completely”.