Israeli settlers hurl rocks at Palestinian homes in Hebron's Old City

A group of Israeli settlers hurled rocks at Palestinian homes on Saturday night in the Jaber neighborhood in Hebron’s Old City, near the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the southern occupied West Bank. Local sources told Ma’an that a group of Israeli settlers, escorted by Israeli forces, threw rocks at Palestinian homes and shouted curses at the Palestinian residents. No injuries were reported by the sources.

On Friday night, Israeli settlers had also attacked Palestinians in the Wadi al-Hassin neighborhood, located directly beside Israel’s illegal Kiryat Arba settlement. At least four Palestinians were injured during the incident.

The settler attacks came some two weeks after an Israeli settler takeover of the Abu Rajab family home located in the Old City of Hebron near the Ibrahimi Mosque. Some 6,500 Palestinians and 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers live in the Old City of Hebron, according to a 2016 report by legal rights NGO BADIL.

Palestinian residents of the Old City face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis, with at least 32 permanent and partial checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets. Additionally, Palestinians are not allowed to drive on al-Shuhada street, have had their homes and shops on the street welded shut, and in some areas of the Old City, are not permitted to walk on certain roads. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers move freely on the street, drive cars, and carry machine guns.

Palestinian activists in Hebron have also connected recent settler attacks on Palestinian communities to a decision by UNESCO to inscribe Hebron’s Old City and Ibrahimi Mosque as Palestinian heritage sites.