Under Fire for Tenth Straight Day: Israeli Forces Continue Displacement and Siege, Paralysing Life in Hebron

For the tenth consecutive day, Israeli occupation forces are continuing their siege of the city of Hebron and tightening military measures in its neighbourhoods and entrances, amid an escalation in forced displacement, home demolitions, shop closures and disruption of schools. The abuses have extended to agricultural land, where farmers are being driven off their land under threat of arms, as humanitarian and economic losses widen with the continuation of the assault.

The tightened military measures are concentrated in the areas of Ain Deir Baha and Al-Jalda, where occupation forces continue to besiege residential neighbourhoods, carry out raid and search campaigns against homes and vandalise their contents, alongside sending additional military reinforcements towards the western part of the city and forcing more families to forcibly evacuate their homes.

Occupation forces have imposed a complete military closure on the Ain Deir Baha neighbourhood and announced through loudspeakers a ban on presence and movement in its alleys, while detaining dozens of young men and subjecting them to field interrogation and abuse. Filmed footage showed occupation soldiers forcing detained Palestinians to place their hands above their heads in humiliating conditions before leading them away to an unknown destination.

These measures escalated after occupation forces blew up on Friday the homes of the martyrs Ahmed and Hamouda Al-Jaaba in the Deir Baha area, who were killed on 23 October by occupation soldiers' gunfire at the Farsh Al-Hawa checkpoint north of the city. Displaced families are still facing prevention and abuse when they try to return to their homes.

According to Hebron municipality data, the fallout from the assault has affected more than 780 families, including 537 families forcibly displaced, while around 5,000 residents face conditions of siege and displacement, between displaced people forced to leave their homes and others besieged inside them.

Data from the Support and Relief Committee reveals the scale of humanitarian needs resulting from the displacement, having recorded data on 537 families comprising 3,361 individuals, including 232 infants, 1,193 children, 326 elderly people, 147 pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as 32 persons with disabilities and 213 people with chronic diseases — groups facing harsh conditions as restrictions on movement and access to basic services continue.

On the economic level, the occupation's measures have affected commercial facilities and homes, with the owners of a tile showroom in the Farsh Al-Hawa area west of the city notified to evacuate it within 24 hours ahead of its demolition, and residents forced to leave the area under threat of arms after a military bulldozer was brought to the site.

According to municipality data, occupation forces demolished 15 homes and facilities and closed 327 shops under military orders, while direct economic losses have exceeded 12 million shekels per day, equivalent to about 3.8 million dollars.

For its part, the Hebron Chamber of Commerce estimated daily losses caused by the closures at between 10 and 12 million shekels, including about one million shekels in the dairy sector alone, amid disrupted sales and distribution and difficulty in getting goods to markets.

The damage was not limited to commercial activity, as infrastructure losses exceeded 6 million shekels, while losses in the health and environment sectors reached about 500,000 shekels, as a result of damage to roads, networks and various facilities.

The disruption has also extended to schools, with around 80,000 male and female students denied access to their schools in the city of Hebron, while other data showed education disrupted for about 262,000 students in 589 schools across the governorate last week, with thousands of students in besieged and displaced areas still unable to reach their schools.

Around the city, the abuses have extended to agricultural land and the olive harvest, as settlers, protected by occupation forces, attacked farmers in Khirbet Al-Kharaba east of the town of Al-Samou south of Hebron, forced them under threat of arms to leave their land, and stole the olive crop.

In a related context, occupation forces continue to close the entrances and exits of the city of Hebron and to erect dirt barriers and concrete blocks on main and secondary roads, isolating residential neighbourhoods and hindering residents' movement and access to basic services.

Since it began, the military campaign has resulted in the arrest of more than 115 residents, including a young woman, along with the detention of hundreds of Palestinians and their subjection to field interrogation and abuse, as night raids on homes and vandalism of residents' property continue.

The toll of the tenth day reveals the widening scope of the fallout left by the assault, with the continued displacement of hundreds of families, disruption of the trade and education sectors, and damage to infrastructure, alongside the tightening of the siege on the city's western neighbourhoods and the deprivation of their residents of freedom of movement and of returning to their homes.

Occupation forces are continuing their military measures in Hebron and its surroundings, with no indications of an end to the siege, while thousands of families remain between forced displacement and siege inside their homes, amid continuing raids, closures and abuses against property and agricultural land.