On Friday evening, Israeli forces closed the main entrance to Tel Rumeida, the central district of the city of Hebron.
The armed Israeli troops detained Palestinian residents of the central city, and prevented them from reaching their homes.
The center of Hebron is an area that has long been the target of colonization for Israeli paramilitary settler gangs, whose tactic is to squat a Palestinian-owned home and establish residence, then claim it is their residence and ask for Israeli military, police and infrastructure support for their takeover – which is freely and readily provided.
Israeli paramilitary settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank, especially in Hebron, and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
According to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, “As the occupying force, Israel must protect the Palestinians in the West Bank. However, the Israeli authorities neglect to fulfil this responsibility and do not do enough to prevent Israeli civilians from attacking Palestinians, their property and their lands.”
Palestinian human rights defender Imad Abu Shamsiyya told reporters that Israeli forces have recently tightened their military measures at checkpoints and roads around Hebron, subjecting the Palestinian residents of the area to search and detention operations. These closures have made it difficult for people to leave from and return to their homes.
Imad has himself been attacked by Israeli settlers on multiple occasions, including in an attempted ramming attack by extremist Israeli settler Ofer Hanna, who regularly intimidates peaceful Palestinian demonstrations, in 2018. The targeted attacks on Imad Abu Shamsiyya and other human rights defenders have never been investigated or prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
Former Israeli soldiers who served in Hebron started an organization called Breaking the Silence to tell their stories and bring out the truth of the Israeli military occupation.
One chant popular among right-wing Israeli Jewish colonial settlers as they march through Hebron and violently assault Palestinians and international observers is “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too”.
They were confronted by about 100 Israeli settlers in small groups, who started chanting in Hebrew “We killed Jesus, we’ll kill you too!”, a refrain the settlers had been repeating to internationals in Tel Rumeida all day….
Please read: … pic.twitter.com/3sdcnM8vUx— TheyAreAllOurChildren #Anonymous #UN2oPts (@revhumanrights) February 22, 2020
