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Israeli 'attack' on Palestinian activists in Hebron

February 17, 2017 at 10:47 pm

Israeli forces allegedly “attacked” Palestinian activists following Friday prayers at the gates of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron city in the occupied West Bank, as hundreds had gathered to perform prayers as part of a demonstration called for by the international campaign “Dismantle the Ghetto, Take Settlers Out of Hebron.”

An activist from the campaign, Majed Abu Sbeih said that Israeli border guards attacked several demonstrators, including local Sheikh Ziad Abu Heleil, activists Anan Daana and Muhammad Al-Jibrini, and human rights activists Badie Al-Dweik and Imad Abu Shamsiyeh, after they shouted slogans calling for ending the military closure on Shuhada Street in Hebron.

Coordinator of the Committee for Defending Hebron, Hisham Sharabati, said that the national campaign for ending the closure in Hebron is based on international humanitarian law and international resolutions.

Sharabati also pointed out that international resolutions and law consider Israeli settlements in the occupied territory and the collective punishment implemented on the Palestinian population there as war crimes.

A spokesperson for the Israeli border police was not immediately available for comment.

Shuhada Street had once been the centre of commercial life in Hebron until the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre when a US-born Israeli settler from the notoriously aggressive Kiryat Arba settlement entered the mosque and opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 Palestinians.

The massacre erupted into mass protests across the occupied West Bank and Gaza, which the Israeli army reacted to by killing dozens of unarmed protesters and ordering hundreds of Palestinian-owned businesses on Shuhada Street to close, eventually sealing the street off completely from Palestinians.

Now, some 23 years later, the street is a ghost town.

Following the massacre, the city was divided between Palestinian and Israeli-controlled zones with the Old City and surrounding areas placed under Israeli military control.