Betar, who works at the local polytechnic college, said those restrictions became a chokehold the day Hamas militants from Gaza attacked Israel, killing at least 1,200 people. The 47-year-old is one of thousands of Palestinians living in nearly a dozen neighborhoods in Israeli-controlled areas of Hebron, who have been effectively \u201cimprisoned at home\u201d by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 7,\u00a0according to\u00a0Israeli human\u00a0rights group B\u2019Tselem. <\/p>\n
A full curfew was imposed that day on those neighborhoods,\u00a0which surround\u00a0Hebron\u2019s old city, where Palestinians were not allowed to leave their homes, according to B\u2019Tselem and other residents. It was partially lifted two weeks later, allowing Palestinians to leave the area between 8 and 9 a.m. and return home between 4 and 5 p.m. on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, said Betar. <\/p>\n
Residents and activists have complained about running out of food, adults missing work, of being fearful and facing threats from settlers for opening their windows or letting their children out\u00a0onto\u00a0the street, and being prevented from returning home in time for curfew as they attempt to pass some of\u00a0the dozens of checkpoints\u00a0that populate the area. <\/p>\n
When Betar\u2019s wife fell ill and was struggling to breathe last week, the curfew prevented the couple from walking out to see a doctor, so an ambulance had to be called. \u201cI am not allowed to open my door or my window\u2026 I called the ambulance, and they arrived after two hours and 57 minutes exactly,\u201d he said, explaining that the medics had to gain Israeli permission to enter the area and navigate a series of checkpoints to get to his home. <\/p>\n
The IDF said there had been \u201ca significant increase in terrorist attacks\u201d in the West Bank since the war began and that its troops had been conducting \u201cnightly counterterrorism operations to apprehend suspects, some of them are part of the Hamas terrorist organization.\u201d <\/p>\n
While it did not address the curfew directly in the statement, the IDF said that \u201cas part of the security operations in the area, dynamic checkpoints have been put up over different places. The mission of the IDF is to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has\u00a0occupied\u00a0the\u00a0West\u00a0Bank\u00a0since seizing the territory from Jordanian military occupation in\u00a01967.\u00a0It\u00a0later agreed\u00a0to\u00a0transfer limited control over parts of the territory to the Palestinian Authority, after agreements signed in the 1990s. But Israel has continued to build settlements there, considered illegal under international law, encroaching into\u00a0land that\u00a0Palestinians and the international community view as territory for a future Palestinian state. Israel views the West Bank as \u201cdisputed territory,\u201d and contends its settlement policy is legal. <\/p>\n
The West Bank has\u00a0seen a surge\u00a0in settler attacks this year, including one that an Israeli military commander called a \u201cpogrom.\u201d The issue has concerned United States officials, with President Joe Biden saying that the US was prepared to issue visa bans against \u201cextremists attacking civilians in the West Bank,\u201d in a Washington Post op-ed over the weekend. <\/p>\n
Even by the standards of the West Bank, the situation in Hebron is complicated. A predominantly Palestinian city, it has Israeli settlements right in the center. The result is both a\u00a0physical and legal segregation\u00a0between the hundreds of Jewish settlers and the thousands of Palestinians who live on the streets around the old city. <\/p>\n
As Betar\u2019s home is meters away from one of the West Bank\u2019s most\u00a0contested and holiest places, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs and to Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, he is restricted from turning right when he exits his front\u00a0door. <\/p>\n
His neighborhood began to hollow out after a 1994 massacre when a Jewish settler walked into the Ibrahimi Mosque and killed 29 people, say residents, prompting Israel to introduce a policy of separation in the area,\u00a0according to a 2019 United Nations report. <\/p>\n
That policy hardened following the second Palestinian intifada between 2000 and 2005\u00a0and\u00a0increasing\u00a0Jewish settler-Palestinian violence that saw the deployment of new checkpoints, restrictions on the movement of Palestinians and closure of shops. <\/p>\n
Thousands of Palestinians\ufeff have since been forced to leave the area amid the settler attacks and \u201cconstant raids and incursions into their homes by Israeli forces, which often include the temporary takeover of parts of the homes,\u201d the report added. <\/p>\n
The old city is now a warren of restrictions and limits for the Palestinians living there. Some areas around Israeli settlements and the Jewish side of the Cave of Patriarchs, close to Betar\u2019s home, have been entirely closed off to Palestinians for decades, according to a map by\u00a0B\u2019Tselem\u00a0and conversations with residents. <\/p>\n
The Palestinian population in the area has\u00a0meanwhile\u00a0shrunk\u00a0to an estimated 33,000 people, says Sadot, B\u2019Tselem\u2019s spokesperson, and she and other activists worry restrictions are being used as a pretext to push Palestinians out\u00a0altogether. <\/p>\n
The post-October 7 restrictions are \u201cnot happening in a political vacuum,\u201d Sadot said. Last year, Israel gained its most right-wing government in history, with some government ministers, like National Security Minister\u00a0Itamar\u00a0Ben Gvir, supporting the annexation of the West Bank. Ben Gvir himself lives in Kiryat Arba, a settlement on the outskirts of Hebron. <\/p>\n
The restrictions\u00a0on Palestinians\u2019\u00a0movement\u00a0are\u00a0in stark contrast to the\u00a0freedoms afforded an\u00a0estimated 700 hardline Jewish settlers, living in areas of the old city and\u00a0still\u00a0free to move about\u00a0with the military\u2019s\u00a0protection. They are also accused of\u00a0behaving with impunity\u00a0and violence towards Palestinians and their property. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were IDF soldiers,\u201d he said, adding that Amro \u201cshould be behind bars, he\u2019s a criminal of the worst kind \u2013 just happens to be a front, a slick with liberal language.\u201d <\/p>\n
Amro\u2019s attorney, Sfard, said in the statement that \u201cif there was a shred of evidence that he has been engaging in any criminal activity he would immediately be sent for a long time in prison. The fact that Issa is not in prison means that all the efforts by the settlers and their supporters and by the occupation to frame him have all failed. All they have left is to incite and spread lies about Issa.\u201d <\/p>\n
The West Bank has thousands of years of Jewish history and many Jewish holy sites; religious-national settlers, like those in Hebron,\u00a0believe these have always been\u00a0part of\u00a0the Land of Israel, as promised to the Jewish people in the Old Testament.\u00a0Settlers believe Hebron should be under Israeli sovereignty as \u201cit is an integral part of Jewish history,\u201d Fleisher said. <\/p>\n
About\u00a0500,000 Jewish settlers\u00a0now live in the\u00a0West\u00a0Bank, according to Peace Now,\u00a0an Israeli group that advocates for peace and monitors settlements.\u00a0Many\u00a0of these settlements are\u00a0heavily guarded, fenced-off areas that are completely off limits to Palestinians. <\/p>\n
Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law and Israel has been criticized for allowing their expansion \u2013 and, in some cases, supporting them with tax breaks and state-funded security. <\/p>\n
The once-bustling market streets\u00a0and thoroughfares now stand empty, apartment windows are closed and covered in metal grates, and a dead cat\u00a0lies decomposing on a road. <\/p>\n
Palestinian resident Ahmad, who declined to provide his last name for fear of repercussions,\u00a0says his family\u00a0moved to the area when he was seven. Even back then, it was too dangerous for Palestinian children to play outside, he said,\u00a0adding:\u00a0\u201cIt was not a childhood.\u201d <\/p>\n
In \u201cnormal\u201d times, the threat of settler attacks was high, but now his family is too scared to leave their home, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really dangerous thing, the settlers really hate us,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The curfew introduced after October 7 left him unable to work until November, depleting his savings, he said.\u00a0He now stays with relatives in the Palestinian-controlled side of Hebron during the week, so he can earn an income as a barista, and bring home food when the checkpoints open on Sunday. <\/p>\n
Betar grew up in the home he currently lives in, as did his father and grandfather. It is why he is refusing to leave. The past month has however pushed him to the brink. <\/p>\n
His house has no yard, so he\u00a0had\u00a0fenced up the roof\u00a0so\u00a0his five children\u00a0could\u00a0run around. But since\u00a0the Hamas attacks, soldiers on roof positions have told them to remain inside the house. <\/p>\n
It now takes him hours to do a simple supermarket shop due to the three checkpoints he has to pass to get home, in narrow timeslots. <\/p>\n
He could instead walk across the road from his house to\u00a0the\u00a0caf\u00e9 and souvenir shop. But Betar is not allowed in as the road itself is closed to Palestinians. Meanwhile, visitors, settlers and soldiers freely\u00a0use the cafe. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had enough \u00ad\u00ad\u2013\u2013 we want to enjoy our lives as any person in the West,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n
Betar, who works at the local polytechnic college, said those restrictions became a chokehold the day Hamas militants from Gaza attacked Israel, killing at least 1,200 people. The 47-year-old is one of thousands of Palestinians living in nearly a dozen neighborhoods in Israeli-controlled areas of Hebron, who have been effectively \u201cimprisoned at home\u201d by the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}