CPTnet
17 June 2014
AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Hijacking a
kidnapping, Part II
The public so far knows very little outside of the alleged
time that Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach were kidnapped. But what we do know is the absolute
mayhem the Israeli military has spread throughout the Hebron district among
innocent families. Additionally,
routine night raids, day patrols, confiscation of public property for military
outposts, and the blockades on all but two access points into Hebron have
suffocated the livelihood of Hebronites.
Soldiers raided the home and took possession of the Al Awewe
family home in Aqbet Taffuh for six hours on Sunday. Over fifty troops had occupied the home while three adults,
four young girls, and a young boy were in the home. The Israeli military would not allow a one-year-old baby to
leave the house and her mother had to sit outside helplessly wondering about
the safety of her daughter, who was still nursing. The soldiers found no suspects connected to the kidnapping
in the home.
In that same area on Monday morning, the IDF confiscated the
security camera equipment the al-Natshe family had installed around their house
for their protection, along with video footage the cameras had recorded.
Further down the road in the Aqbet Taffuh area,
approximately fifty-five Israeli soldiers left the hilltop area of the
Palestinian municipality, occupied several homes, questioned families, tore
down a private Palestinian fence and occupied the neighborhood for several
hours.
Throughout the afternoon, northeast of Bab i-Zaweyah, just
outside of the H1/H2 intersection, a brigade of more than forty soldiers stationed
themselves in four different homes and a supermarket within a two hour period,
leaving families frightened and unsure of their intentions.
On 15 June at around 9:30 p.m., an Israeli raid on a Palestinian
home ended with a seven-year-old Palestinian boy hospitalized after the Israeli
military used an explosive device to blow open the front door of the Akram Al Qawasmeh
home. The subsequent powerful
blast shattered the tempered reinforced glass, shearing off the decorative
steel and sending pieces of shrapnel into all corners of the home, which severely
injured Akram Al Qawasmeh’s son.
After the explosion, Israeli soldiers did not allow Akram Al
Qawasmeh to see his son, and according to reports, the military initially
stopped medical personal from treating the victim. CPT arrived the following day and found a home turned upside
down. (See video below.) Children’s
belongings were spread and broken around the house. Israeli soldiers demolished the kitchen, smashing fruits,
vegetables, and other food items on the floor, and left feces on a rug in the
basement.
These are just a few of the incidents that CPTers were able
to report on directly. Other human
rights organizations have also reported an increase in settler violence against
Palestinians who live near the Hebron area settlements.
Historically, Palestinian violence has been the
justification for settlement expansion in Hebron. Currently, the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee has identified
over twenty-two locations of pending settlement expansion and settler
activity. The behavior of the
Israeli military and settlers in Hebron suggests the government may use the
case of the three young kidnapped boys as an excuse to expand these settlements
in the Hebron area or elsewhere in the West Bank while the international
community is distracted.
See previous release, AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Hijacking a kidnapping, Part I
