On 12-13 December 2011, three armed officers in plain clothes from an Israeli intelligence organization, accompanied by a squadron of Israeli soldiers, forced workers to stop renovations in approximately thirteen Palestinian shops near the entrance of Hebron’s Old City.

The men in plain clothes started by inspecting the construction work going on in the shops near Bab il Baledeyya.  They asked questions of the owners, checking in particular the structures that had belonged to the Jewish community in Hebron prior to 1929.