Palestinian sources reported the Israeli troops forced Palestinian shop owners to close their shops in the old town area of the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday.
The soldiers claimed that Palestinian youth hurl stones at them from the top of the shops, and that is why they closed them. The shop owners stated that no youths have hurled stones from their roof tops and added that the army wants to close the shops down in order to allow Israeli Jewish Settlers illegallyl living in Hebron to take over that part of the city.
Hebron municipality stated that the Israeli army has closed five shops that belong to residents of the city, among those owners were Abd Al Hafth Al Bakri , Muslem Al Muhtasep and Taha Ahmad.
The city of Hebron is populated by around 10,000 Palestinians and around 400 Israeli settlers. Around 2000 armed Israeli soldiers are deployed in the city, supposedly to protect the settlers, many of whom are also armed.
