“Together with the rise in the scale and frequency of such attacks, this means they are not isolated incidents, but the outcome of an explicit, deliberate and systemic policy.”
A new report by Israeli rights group B’Tselem has documented recurring instances of severe abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the center of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron (Al-Khalil) between May and August 2024.
“The attacks were aimed at Palestinians suspected of no wrongdoing and often carried out in plain sight, in full view of officers and commanders,” B’Tselem said in the report titled Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the Center of Hebron released on Tuesday.
“Together with the rise in the scale and frequency of such attacks, this means they are not isolated incidents, but the outcome of an explicit, deliberate, and systemic policy,” the group stated.
Our new report, “Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the Center of Hebron”, is out today.
In more than 20 testimonies, Palestinians told us how during the summer of 2024, soldiers randomly seized them from the street, a checkpoint or a home and subjected them… pic.twitter.com/I7LELnDQ70— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) December 3, 2024
About 900 illegal Jewish settlers live among tens of thousands of Palestinians in the center of Hebron, the second largest city in the occupied West Bank, with more than 1,000 soldiers who “uphold the systems of separation and military control” in the city.
Over the years, Israel has reduced Palestinians’ freedom of movement, mainly in the area that contains the settlements, B’Tselem explained, with the restrictions including “dozens of fortified checkpoints, road-blocks, and permanent and temporary military posts that tend to open and close at random, with no prior notice.”
The checkpoints “are equipped with advanced identification and data collection systems,13 and Palestinians crossing them are often subjected to humiliation and violence.”
‘Deliberate Acts of Violence’
Since October 7 last year, some victims recounted that Israeli forces sought “any feeble pretext” to justify the abuse, such as a “suspicious” picture or signs of following updates on Gaza, found on a victim’s cellphone. There were enough to justify transfer to one of the military posts scattered throughout Hebron and subjection to physical and mental abuse for hours, at gunpoint, while handcuffed and blindfolded, said B’Tselem.
Hebron, the second-largest Palestinian city in the West Bank, reveals the reality of life under Israeli military control. In its city center, where 900 Israeli settlers live among tens of thousands of Palestinians, over 1,000 soldiers enforce a system of apartheid. Movement… pic.twitter.com/nM85LU19RJ
— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) December 3, 2024
B’Tselem’s field researchers collected 25 testimonies from Palestinians who “described acts of violence, abuse and humiliation by soldiers aimed at men, women, teenagers and children.”
They were seized while going about their daily affairs: on their way to work, having coffee in the yards, or going to buy groceries, the report said.
“Most were taken to military facilities, where the major abuse took place. Some of the abuse was filmed by the soldiers, including on video calls with acquaintances,” it stated.
None of the victims was suspected of an offense, nor were they charged, and all were let go immediately after the assault, many of them in a state that required medical attention.
“Only two victims were arrested, but were ultimately released with no further action taken against them,” the report noted.
Excerpts of Testimonies
A 54-year-old father of six said he was on his way to work at around seven in the morning when “a soldier who was standing about 50 meters away pointed his gun at me and yelled at me to stop.”
‘Bearing the Brunt’ – Three Palestinian Children Killed Every Week in West Bank
“He came over and pushed me, and then he ordered me to hand over my ID card and phone. Before I could give him the phone, he grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved me to the ground. My back hurt a lot and I shouted. […] When I kept shouting in pain, the soldier sat on me and pressed both his knees hard into my chest, until felt I couldn’t breathe from the pain,” said Hisham Abu Is’ifan.
Abu Is’ifan “blacked out for a few minutes” and ultimately was carried home by his relatives as he “couldn’t move” after the soldier had “knocked me down hard on my back after recent back surgery.” Read the full testimony here.
Curfew
Muhammad ‘Aref Jaber, 21, from the Jaber neighborhood in the center of Hebron, was attacked by soldiers on May 17, 2024.
“Once the curfew is on, we can’t leave the neighborhood or do anything else. At 11:00 P.M., a soldier came into the yard and stood there, looking at us and pointing his gun at us. ” Then he ordered my friend Muhammad Abu Ramileh and me to get up and go over to him. We both got up immediately and walked over to him, and he ordered us to hold hands and walk ahead of him. He took us to the military observation point next to the Jaber checkpoint, walking behind us and pointing his gun at us the whole way”. Read the full testimony here.
The livestreamed genocide effect reverberating from Gaza to the West Bank. Settler colonial violence in impunity. https://t.co/5A0wqXFZjF pic.twitter.com/a47TmC1Mv6
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) December 3, 2024
Cellphone ‘Justification’
Mahmoud ‘Alaa Ghanem, 18, from the town of Dura in Hebron District, was attacked by soldiers on 8 July 8, 2024.
“Another soldier handed me my phone and ordered me to unlock it with the password… After a few minutes, the soldiers put me in a jeep and made me sit on the floor…One of the soldiers grabbed me by the hair and slammed my face into the back door, three times in a row. I felt that my mouth and nose were bleeding. The soldier asked me, ‘Do you like Hamas?’ I said no, and then he grabbed me by the arm, twisted it around my neck and strangled me […] Two soldiers started slapping me and asking me again: ‘Do you like Hamas?’ Again, I said I didn’t, and then one of them hit me hard in the testicles. I screamed in pain, and then he hit me harder in the same place. I begged him in the name of God to stop hitting me”.
Read his full testimony here.
Details of Abuse
Many of the victims were “forcibly taken to military facilities, posts or watchtowers, where they were attacked by one or more soldiers,” said B’Tselem.
Summer of Hell for Palestinians in Hebron, B’Tselem Report Says ➡️https://t.co/GvB1erdBIk pic.twitter.com/nabJP96jyO
— Gerald Celente (@geraldcelente) December 3, 2024
Others were abused inside inspection rooms at checkpoints, or in military vehicles.
The victims described severe physical and mental abuse, including, among other things, punching and kicking; blows delivered with firearms, batons, or a chair; slamming the head against a wall or the body against the floor; whipping with a belt; and, in one case, stabbing, the report said.
Three of the victims had their faces covered to the point of suffocation, it noted, with most of the victims abused while blindfolded, with their hands tied, and forced to stay in painful positions for hours on end. Some were forced to sit in the scorching sun for hours, and others in a room with freezing air conditioning.
Others were deprived of food and drink for long periods of time. During the physical assaults, victims were also verbally abused, including swearing and humiliating remarks made against them, family members or their religion, the report said.
‘Curse My Mother’
“One of the soldiers stood on my ankles and pressed them down hard. I screamed in pain. He also ordered me to curse my mother and say that I was a ‘son of a whore’, but I refused again, and he hit me in the back with the barrel of a rifle,” said Isma’il Jaber, 22, from the Jaber neighborhood in the center of Hebron, who was attacked by soldiers on May 30, 2024.
“Then he pressed it (the barrel of a rifle) against my head and asked, ‘Do you want to die a martyr?’ I said yes, and he said, ‘Then I’ll shoot you in the head and you’ll die a martyr,’” he added.
‘Does it Hurt?’
“One of the soldiers came to me and put his cigarette out on my right leg. He put it out slowly, so it would hurt more. One of them asked: ‘Does it hurt?’. When I said yes, he punched me in the back of the head, stood on my legs and pressed down hard,” testified Muhammad a-Natsheh, 22, from the Tel Rumeidah neighborhood, who was attacked by soldiers on July 14, 2024.
Use of Guns, Other Weapons
The report documented that some of the soldiers used guns and other weapons as part of the abuse. In two cases, soldiers fired in the air to scare the victims. In one case, soldiers fired rubber-coated metal bullets that hit the victim in the head.
‘Lethal’ – UN Slams Israel’s Use of ‘Warlike Tactics’ in Occupied West Bank
In seven incidents, soldiers threw stun grenades at the victims and their family members, four of them indoors, the report said.
“One of them looked at me and winked. He gave me a mocking smile and then I saw him pull the pin on a stun grenade and
throw it between my legs,” said ‘Abir Id’es-Jaber, 33, a mother of four from the al-Manshar neighborhood who was attacked by soldiers along with her husband on August 21, 2024.
Sexual Violence
Several victims recounted varying degrees of sexual violence and physical humiliation, ranging from explicit threats of rape, to forced undressing, and strong blows to the genitals, the report stated.
“The five soldiers surrounded me and started hitting me with their guns. One of them hit me on the head with a rifle. I fell down and they continued beating me, aiming deliberately for my testicles and other sensitive parts. The beating lasted a few minutes. I started feeling faint,” said Wisam Dufosh, 35, a father of three from the Tel Rumeidah neighbourhood.
Based on reports from the United Nations, B’Tselem, Euro-Med Monitor, and other sources, Israel has used sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in a systematic manner against Palestinians in detention, at checkpoints, and during encounters in #Gaza since 7 October 2023. The use… pic.twitter.com/tHl3BepNu2
— Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (@LemkinInstitute) September 11, 2024
“When I came to, I was in an ambulance. It took me to the Aliya Governmental Hospital in Hebron, where they did X-rays. I also had bruises all over my body, especially on my testicles,” he testified.
In another testimony, “The five soldiers who were in the room got up and started beating me hard. When they were done, they made me take off all my clothes. One of the soldiers got a metal detector and ran it over my body,” said Mahmoud Jaber, 20.
Later the soldiers “forced me to undress again and do 150 push-ups. I told him I couldn’t, and then the soldiers beat and cursed me. I was completely naked. It was a very humiliating experience”.
“One of the soldiers said to me in Arabic: ‘We’ll rape you’. One of them grabbed my head, and another soldier tried to open my mouth and shove a rubber object in it,” said Muhammad a-Natsheh, 22.
Visual Documentation of Abuse
Sometimes, documenting the violence, abuse and humiliation was part of the attack itself. Some incidents were filmed on video, likely on the soldiers’ cell phones, B’Tselem said. “In some cases, the soldiers were on a video call with acquaintances during the abuse, and joked about the suffering they were causing the victims,” it added.
“They made me walk until we got to a room, where they made me kneel again. One of the soldiers pushed me and my back hit a hard, sharp object. It hurt a lot, and I let out a scream. The soldiers laughed. I heard the sound of laughter on a cell phone and figured they were filming me and sharing it with friends,” said Mahmoud Jaber, 20.
Video documents Israeli soldiers kidnapping and beating a Palestinian young man in Nablus, the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/xYSoieGEMr
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) December 3, 2024
B’Tselem said the testimonies indicate that the abuse had “a lasting psychological impact,” with some of the victims reporting trouble sleeping due to nightmares about the attacks.
“All were left keenly aware that although that particular incident may be over, they and their families are living in a constant threat to their lives, bodily integrity and wellbeing,” the rights group said.
“The scope of violence revealed in the testimonies – carried out in plain sight, and sometimes recorded – makes it clear that the abuse cannot be explained only as a personal vendetta by soldiers or a flaw in the system,” said B’Tselem.
“It shows that this violence is the outcome of a systematic, longstanding policy of oppression, expulsion and dispossession that is at the very core of the Israeli apartheid regime,” the group emphasized.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
