Israeli forces abduct 3, settlers burn Palestinian shops in Hebron

WAFA – Israeli forces Monday arrested three Palestinians from the governorate of Hebron, in the southern West Bank, while Jewish settlers attacked businesses in the center of Hebron city, according to local sources.

Israeli forces set up military checkpoints through Hebron governorate, including the towns of Halhoul, Dura, and Aroub and Fawwar refugee camps. Soldiers stopped vehicles to check passenger identification papers.

Eyewitnesses said a number of settlers attacked Palestinian businesses in al-Shuhadaa [Martyrs] street in the center of Hebron city and burnt shoes, stalls, and shop fronts.

This street was closed to Palestinian vehicles by Israeli forces in 1994, after the Cave of the Patriarchs Mosque massacre by Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein, who shot and killed 20 Palestinians. At the end of 2000, Israel prohibited Palestinians from walking in the street on the pretext of protecting the security of a group of extremist settlers who inhabit the heart of Hebron.

In the same street, Israeli forces have closed more than 500 businesses and forced, through their practices, more than 1000 others to close, in addition to setting up tens of checkpoints and metal gates in the areas surrounding the mosque and in the old city.

These closures and attacks target thousands of Palestinians in order to give freedom of movement to some tens of illegal Jewish settlers in the streets of occupied Hebron. Settlers have the protection of large numbers of Israeli soldiers.