Israel seals Palestinian family’s home with them inside

A Palestinian family was trapped inside their home and forced to leave through a broken window after Israeli occupation forces welded their front door shut in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron this morning.

The incident took place on Al-Shuhada Street in the Old City of Hebron, one of the most heavily militarised streets in the occupied West Bank.

Samer Yusri Zahida told Ma’an that Israeli occupation forces broke into his brother’s house at 8am and forced him and his three other family members into one room.

After detaining the family for a brief period of time, occupation forces broke one of the windows in the house and exited through it, allegedly telling the family that if they want to leave the house they must also exit through the window. Israeli forces then sealed the front door shut.

READ: Israel settlers take over Palestinian home in occupied Hebron

Zahida noted that the window that was broken did not lead to the main road, but to the neighbour’s house.

Locals later opened the house’s main door.

وسط مضايقات من المستوطنين .. الأهالي يعيدون فتح منزل قرب المسجد الإبراهيمي في الخليل، بعد إغلاقه على أصحابه من قبل قوات الاحتلال اليوم.

تصوير محمود فراش pic.twitter.com/uaiGtG1F4m

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) June 7, 2018

Coordinator of the Human Rights Defenders Association in Hebron, Imad Abu Shamsieh, told Ma’an that Israeli occupation forces have been trying to force the family out since they moved in two weeks ago, in what he said was an “attempt to empty Al-Shuhada Street of all Palestinian residents and provide it to Israeli settlers as a new residence.”

Palestinian residents of Hebron’s Old City face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis, with at least 20 checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets, as well as the entrance of the Ibrahimi Mosque itself.

They are also not permitted to drive on Al-Shuhada Street, have had their homes and shops on the street welded shut, and are not allowed to walk on some roads in the Old City.

Meanwhile, some 800 notoriously violent Israeli settlers in Hebron move freely on the street, drive cars, and carry machine guns.