Israeli settlers ambush Hebron homes and hurl abuse at residents
HEBRON // Dozens of Israelis entered homes in a building in the centre of the Palestinian city of Hebron yesterday.
Settlers hurled stones and verbally abused residents of a number of Palestinian homes in Hebron, a local activist with Israeli rights group B’Tselem told the Palestinian Ma’an news agency.
Raed Abu Rmeila said the settlers, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, broke down several doors in the building near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the heart of the occupied city.
“A group of dozens of settlers accompanied by rabbis broke into a building on Shuhada Street,” Jawad Abu Eisheh, an activist with the Youth Against Settlements group, said.
Yishai Fleisher, a spokesman for the local Jewish community, claimed the homes had been bought from the residents legally, although under Palestinian law, it is illegal to sell homes to Israelis in the West Bank.
Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East war, have been declared illegal by the international community. Hebron is home to about 200,000 Palestinians, but also hosts a community of 500 illegal settlers, protected by Israeli forces. The move had not been coordinated with the army beforehand, Mr Fleisher said, “for fear of leaks and efforts to try to stop it”. However, Israeli forces were later seen protecting the settlers as locals started to pelt them with stones.
Soldiers responded with stun grenades and a number of in- jured Palestinians were taken to hospital, witnesses said. An army spokeswoman later said the clashes had subsided.
Israeli immigration minister Zeev Elkin praised Hebron’s settler community for “the determined move to expand the Jewish presence in the city”.
“I call on the defence minister to give the settlers all the help he can and not give in to the pressures of the Palestinian rioters.” Defence minister Moshe Yaalon would have to approve the settlers’ move, which would in effect expand the boundaries of the Jewish enclave in Hebron. A police spokeswoman said that a court- issued order has “frozen the situation” until a final decision is taken.