Israel's Hebron siege displaces nearly 5,000 as lockdown enters second week

Nearly 5,000 people have been displaced from their homes in Hebron as Israel's military lockdown of the southern West Bank city entered its second week on Friday, according to an Al Jazeera analysis of municipal data and statistics from human rights groups.

The figure stands at 4,969, including 441 elderly people, 336 infants under two, 312 patients with chronic diseases, more than 200 pregnant or nursing women and 44 people with disabilities. About 780 families are displaced, roughly 2 percent of the city's 250,000 residents, the analysis found.

Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Jabari told Al Jazeera that thousands of citizens had been forced out and that "the world watched children crying after midnight". He told the Anadolu agency the city faces "a severe, massive siege and collective punishment". On October 24 he put the number displaced at about 2,200, meaning it more than doubled in two days.

How the closure works

The lockdown began on Friday, October 23, after two Palestinians shot dead two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others in Hebron; Israeli forces killed the two attackers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media that he had ordered security forces to close Hebron immediately and "prepare for a full lockdown across all of Judea and Samaria", the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank, adding: "We will act to destroy this place, to change it completely."

The Israeli army said the operation aims to "thwart terrorism". Defence Minister Israel Katz said Palestinians will not be allowed home until Hamas's "infrastructure" is dismantled. Israeli news site Ynet quoted the army as saying the weapons search had brought "limited accomplishments" and that keeping residents away for long faced "legal difficulties".

Al Jazeera's analysis found Israeli forces have surrounded Hebron by closing 10 entrances between 2.4km and 7.6km from the centre, including Halhul, Nabi Yunus and Ras al-Jora in the north; Beit Einun in the northeast; Bir al-Mahjar in the northwest; and Jabal Juhar, al-Fahs, Qalqas, al-Harayiq and Dura in the east and south.

The eviction zone covers 0.35 square kilometres, an area housing more than 500 families. In Farsh al-Hawa, troops demolished a three-apartment building on October 23-24, targeted a ceramics company and car parts shops and bulldozed about 7,000 square metres of land. Residents of al-Jalda and Ein Deir Bahha were ordered out by loudspeakers around midnight on October 23.

Displacement and arrests

Most displaced families are staying with relatives or host families in nearby neighbourhoods such as Issa; none has used official shelter centres and only 23 families have rented homes.

The Palestinian Prisoner's Society says about 110 Palestinians were arrested across the governorate in the first six days, including seven children, and that eight relatives of the two gunmen are still held. It reported that hundreds of others faced field interrogations on streets, at checkpoints and in homes, accompanied by beatings and abuse.

The military says it searched more than 500 sites and found a 15-metre-deep pit containing an electronic device near an attacker's home. The property owner denied this, saying it is a sewage cesspit and the property belongs to neither gunman.

The Hebron Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates daily commercial losses at 12 million shekels (about $3.8m), with factory production capacity down 40-60 percent, according to vice president Adnan al-Natsheh. Truck movement has halted. Demolitions in Farsh al-Hawa alone caused damage of more than two million shekels (about $640,000).

In September, the Hebron governorate recorded 272 attacks, 122 by Israeli settlers, and 19 demolitions that levelled 91 structures, making it the most targeted governorate in the West Bank for demolitions.

Source: Al Jazeera.