From Ma’an News Agency www.maannews.net on Tue 13.1.09:

Hebron – Ma’an – A young man was killed by Israeli bullets near the Tarqumiya checkpoint north west of Hebron Tuesday afternoon.

Eyewitness said the man was killed while holding his child, working on a farm. Four Israeli soldiers allegedly arrived on foot soon after, speaking to the man before beginning to beat him, covered his eyes with a cloth and took him away in a military jeep.

Out of the view of the media, the man was then killed, according to witnesses.

Israeli police disputed that report, claiming the man was attempting to steal a soldier’s weapon. He was shot and wounded seriously, but died en route to Hebron Hospital.

He was identified as … Continue reading

On Saturday, December 27, just hours after missile strikes on the Gaza Strip began, demonstrations broke out throughout Israeli and Palestinian cities and towns. In Hebron, dozens were injured, including 1 international solidarity activist, when Israeli soldiers began firing into the crowds who had gathered near the Ibrahimi Mosque (Abraham’s Tomb) with tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets. Hundreds of people flooded the streets in Nablus in a spontaneous demonstration where local leaders called for Palestinian unity in the face of the on-going massacre. In Tel Aviv, nearly 1,000 people from several Israeli cities gathered in the center of town and, despite an order from the … Continue reading

For the original article and video click here

An Israel Defense Forces soldier has been arrested for allegedly shooting his gun while rioting with settlers in Hebron, it emerged on Tuesday.

The soldier, a member of the Givati infantry brigade who was off-suty at the time of the clashes, is a resident of the West bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron.

He was arrested after the B’Tselem rights organization filmed him taking part in the clash between settlers and Palestinians. Ynet reported Tuesday that a military court has extended his remand.

According to B’tselem, the incident occurred on November 29, during the upsurge in violence that surrounded the eviction of the so-called “House of Contention” in Hebron.

Last week, the Israel Defense Forces … Continue reading

On Thursday, December 4, the Israeli police, supported by the Israeli military, carried out the largest evacuation of illegal settlers in Hebron city in recent times. Up to 250 settlers, most bussed in from outside, had reinforced a building in central Hebron which had been taken over 2 years ago, but which the Israeli High Court had ordered evacuated weeks ago. They were dragged out of the so-called “House of Contention”, with approximately 20 arrested.
Settlers then rioted throughout Hebron, attacking Palestinians, setting Palestinian homes, shops and cars on fire, and in one incident caught on tape through the Btselem camera distribution project, shot 40 year-old Hosni … Continue reading

Chrisitian Peacemaker Teams, At-Tuwani:

On Wednesday July 30, settlers attacked fourteen Palestinian children between the ages six to twelve on their way from summer camp to their homes in the villages of Tuba and Magher Al-abeed. Five settlers hid themselves along the route of the children and waited for them. When the children approached the settlers began yelling, swearing, and throwing rocks at them. One settler jumped over the settlement fence and chased the children on a path leading to the village of Tuba. The Israeli soldiers assigned to protect the children (Jeep 611019) abandoned the children approximately 500 meters earlier, thereby failing to complete the escort of the children as ordered by the Israeli Knesset.

According … Continue reading

For three of the past four nights soldiers have entered Beit Ommar en masse, entering many homes and shooting live ammunition. It began at 2 am Thursday morning when five jeeps entered the village and fired volleys of live ammunition into the air. Over bullhorns, they declared a curfew, forbidding anyone from leaving their homes. They then spent over an hour driving through the village, seemingly just taunting the residents. No arrests were made and there was not even the premise of looking for “wanted” individuals; soldiers did not enter any homes but seemed content to impose their control over the village arbitrarily. The next evening was even more intrusive.

Beginning at approximately 10 pm Thursday … Continue reading

The Israeli Military has used Administrative detention in the past 10 years as a tool to dispel political dissent and break up Palestinian resistance, both armed and non-violent. It is also used as a way to disrupt the fabric of Palestinian communities. According to B’tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, between 1999 and 2001 the average number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons under administrative detention, that is, without charge or trial, was less than 20. This number significantly rose during the second intifada and was over 500 by 2003. Yet the use of administrative detention, which is ostensibly used to imprison immediate threats to Israeli security, has increased since the end of the second intifada, … Continue reading

From Christian Peacemaker Teams-Tuwani

On 24 June 2008, around 6:30, two Israeli settlers beat two unarmed Palestinian shepherds from Mantiquat Shi’bal Butum. The settlers came down from the nearby Israeli settlement outpost of Mitzpe Yair to an area where the shepherds, aged fifty-five and twenty, routinely graze their sheep. Armed with stones from the hillside, the settlers injured the ribs of the older shepherd and the eye of the younger. A Palestinian in the area called the Israeli police and ambulance, both of which arrived fifteen minutes after the beating.

The police spoke with the two settlers identified by the Palestinians as the attackers. They took the settlers’ ID numbers and issued … Continue reading

From the Christian Peacemaker Teams-Tuwani

At 11am on 5 June, 2008, the Israeli military again blocked the road between At-Tuwani and Yatta. A bulldozer massed a six-foot-high mound spanning the width of the road using concrete slabs, boulders and earth. Several villages in the South Hebron Hills are again cut off from basic supplies such as water, firewood and animal feed, as this road provides the primary vehicle access to Yatta, which serves as the region’s economic hub, with critical services such as hospitals and secondary schools.

The new roadblock greatly expands a pile of roadblock placed by the Israeli army on 28 May. It is the largest in a series of … Continue reading

At approximately 1am today, June 5, Israeli soldiers, with their faces painted in camouflage (to blend in with the gray concrete and tan stone walls of Palestinian homes?) invaded the home of Mohammed Fuwad Al-Qoom near the central mosque in Beit Ommar, Hebron District. The family was forced from the home and the soldiers remained all night. At approximately 8am, 7 hours after soldiers first entered the village, an Israeli soldier shot Tariq Abu Maria, 15, in the abdomen on his way to the school. He was taken to the hospital in Hebron, where he underwent surgery and is still in critical condition. By 9:30am 4 large Armored Personnel … Continue reading