Ramallah, occupied West Bank - Hebron has become the most oppressive place to be a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank: a city where people live under curfew amid the terror of soldiers and settlers rampaging through the streets and abusing residents daily.
The “majority of the estimated 4,000 Palestinians remaining in Hebron’s Old City and its surrounding areas - whether men, women or children - have been physically assaulted by soldiers,” resident Aref Jaber told °®Âţµş.
“People are severely beaten and forced to stand in stress positions. Dozens of men and even women were transferred to hospital for treatment after they were released,” the 50-year-old, who himself was beaten along with his three sons, told °®Âţµş.
Alongside Jerusalem, Hebron is the only Palestinian city with settlers living in the heart of the city centre, including the Old City.
In the H2 area of Hebron, 20 percent of the city where around 700 Israelis live in illegal settlements protected by the Israeli military, the 35,000 Palestinians who live there have long suffered from severe restrictions of movement and settler attacks.
But after the war on Gaza in October 2023, living conditions for Palestinians surrounded by settlers have become unbearable.
A year into the war, residents remain under siege. “We live under a daily curfew from 10pm to 7am. On Fridays, the curfew begins at 4pm and on Saturdays no one is allowed out of their homes all day. If anyone breaks the curfew they are detained and abused for hours at a time,” he continued.
“There are about 35 military checkpoints inside these besieged areas. There is a checkpoint or military post every 30 to 50 metres,” said Jaber, explaining that only those who are registered as living in these areas on their ID cards are allowed to enter. Even other family members cannot visit.
For the first four months after the war, Israeli occupation forces imposed a full lockdown and 24-hour curfew on residents in Hebron’s Old City and its radius, including the neighbourhoods of Shuhada Street, Tel Rumeida, and Al-Rajabi.
“No one was allowed out, not even humanitarian cases,” said Jaber.
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Settlers-turned-soldiers
Multiple residents told °®Âţµş that the soldiers operating in Hebron after the war were recruited from the settlers living in the city itself, causing a severe spike in the abuse of Palestinians.
“During the first few months of the war under curfew, it was the settlers from Hebron dressed as soldiers who were ruling the streets. They were controlling exit and entry; they prevented Palestinians from opening their front doors, even if people had run out of food,” said Loay al-Saeed, a journalist and resident living near the Old City.
“Additionally, during their weekly raids in the Old City of Hebron, the settlers would descend onto the streets in army uniform,” he told °®Âţµş.
Several documenting the recruitment of settlers into the army since the war on Gaza have been issued over the past year, . This is taking place not only in Hebron, but across the occupied West Bank, particularly in remote areas such as the Jordan Valley.
Residents and journalists in Hebron specifically described the emergence of new squads of settler-soldiers that patrol the streets in a white 4x4 vehicle and are known to be extremely abusive.
“They roam about the streets 24-hours a day, provoking people, raiding shops. They search young men arbitrarily and force them to stand on the wall, for no reason. People get beaten at the very least,” said Jaber. “They are untrained and have no ethics, no humanity. Most of them are between 18 to 21 years old,” he added.
“Their purpose is simply to assault and abuse people, to enforce their power and control,” said journalist al-Saeed. “They blast loud music at three and four am in the morning inside Palestinian neighbourhoods.”
According to a June 2024 by Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), these units are “quasi-military forces composed of civilian residents of the settlements and outposts, trained and equipped with IDF weapons but appointed by settlements,” and have the power to carry out search and arrests among other things.
More than half of the incidents of violence or threats of violence by these squads collected by ACLED occurred in Hebron.
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Forcible transfer
Attacks by settlers, including those in paramilitary forces, do not only take place in the Old City of Hebron. The governorate has been one of the worst hit in terms of forced displacement due to settler and army intimidation and assault. of the completely emptied since October 2023 are located in the Hebron governorate.
Many of the attacks that led to displacement were carried out by settler-soldiers and military reservists, a fact that was also by the United Nations (UN).
Separately and during the same time frame, settlers built at least 28 new illegal outposts across the Hebron governorate, Imad Abu Hawwash, a researcher with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights told °®Âţµş.
The most recent issue tied to attacks by settlers and soldiers, said Abu Hawwash, was the olive harvest season which took place from October to November 2024.
“More than 95 percent of residents in proximity to settlements were prevented from entering their lands this year,” he said.
Abu Hawwash explained that the theft of new Palestinian land, the building of illegal outposts and settlements, as well as the military siege and checkpoints on Hebron among other things, “are part of Israel’s strategy to build a coercive environment” to push residents to leave.
Under international law, this method , which is a war crime.
“Many residents were forced to leave because of the living conditions. For those in the besieged areas, for example, it is extremely difficult to bring basic things like a gas tank for cooking or heating,” said Abu Hawwash. “People are unable to go out about their lives. This is ethnic cleansing by creating a coercive environment.”
Zena Tahhan is a freelance journalist based in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
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