West Bank: Growing Israeli restrictions trap Palestinians in Hebron's Old City

Living in Hebron’s Old City, Imad Abu Shamsiyeh has long suffered from humiliating Israeli checkpoints, movement restrictions and settler harassment. 

Access to his house in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood, which is adjacent to settlements and settler-only roads, has been severely restricted for years. 

But earlier this week, Israeli forces took things a step further. They placed barbed wire between his home and his neighbour's, blocking the last route he and others took to avoid running into the soldiers. 

“Every house has been turned into a prison,” Abu Shamsiyeh, 54, told Middle East Eye. 

Since the Israeli war on Gaza began last year, the military has been imposing severe restrictions on movements across the occupied West Bank, including Hebron, the only Palestinian city alongside Jerusalem where Israeli settlers reside in the Old City.

For decades, this has meant direct Israeli control over parts of Hebron’s Old City, where nearly 35,000 Palestinians and some 800 settlers live. 

The settlers are provided with protection by the soldiers, designated segregated roads and given full freedom of movement. 

On the other hand, the Palestinians are forced to go through 28 checkpoints and dozens of military barriers, often being subjected to humiliating and long searches, sexual harassment and even arrest without cause.  

“Women and children are arrested at checkpoints and mistreated,” said Abu Shamsiyeh.

Activists and journalists have documented sexual harassment of women during their arrest, but none of the soldiers were held accountable, and children were brutally beaten without any deterrence.” 

‘Every house has been turned into a prison’

- Imad Abu Shamsiyeh, Hebron resident

To avoid these checkpoints, hundreds of the Old City’s Palestinian residents used to take a longer alternative route, which passed through Abu Shamsiyeh’s home. 

But on 2 November, Israeli forces fenced off the route with barbed wire. They asked Abu Shamsiyeh and his wife, Fayza, to identify the names of those who passed by the route from footage filmed by surveillance cameras. 

“I refused to recognise anyone because we experience [at the checkpoints] the same suffering as those who pass by,” Fayza, 49, told MEE. 

“We are deprived of using the wide street adjacent to our house because it has become designated only for settlers. We literally live in cages.” 

The restrictions, including the regular use of curfews against Palestinians on the weekends, are becoming more challenging, Imad said. 

He explained that people aren't even able to regularly bring in enough basic supplies, like gas canisters for cooking. 

Then there’s the routine violence from settlers, who according to Imad, exchange roles with the military in terrorising Palestinians and vandalising their property. 

"Even family visits in this area have become prohibited to us,” he added. 

“On the roof of my house, there is an Israeli military barracks that monitors our every movement. We were forced to put fences on every window to protect us from settler attacks.” 

Schools and checkpoints 

The military restrictions and the settlers' violence spare no one, including pupils. 

Raif Abu Sneineh, 57, who works as a receptionist at the Ibrahimi School near the Ibrahimi Mosque, faces daily challenges to reach it even though he lives only hundreds of metres away.

At the onset of the war on Gaza, the school was closed for six months and then was reopened with major restrictions, including searching students and teachers at checkpoints for hours.

“The Israeli army issued us special cards to show them at the checkpoint so that we could get to the school, but despite that, we were subjected to detention, searches and insults,” he told MEE.

Not a day goes by without school being disrupted for at least an hour due to checkpoints and students being deliberately late, he added. The main gate has also been closed, while anyone other than teachers and students, including parents, is prevented from entering.

“Some students are constantly arrested for no reason. We wait at the checkpoint for all the students to pass. This means that our entire day is wasted between the checkpoints,” he explained.

According to statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Education, there are more than 11,000 school students in the area under Israeli control inside Hebron, called H2, all of whom are subjected to obstructed access to their schools and humiliating daily procedures that hinder their opportunity to obtain adequate education.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that over 11,000 students live in the Israeli-controlled Hebron's H2 area. 

These students face daily obstacles that block their access to schools and endure humiliating procedures that severely hinder their ability to receive a proper education, it says.

Silent war 

Before Israeli settlements began growing in Hebron in the early 2000s, the Old City used to be a vibrant hub for Palestinians, bustling with buyers and sellers.

But the Israeli closures and checkpoints have turned it into a ghost town, with business owners struggling to attract customers. 

With tourists prevented by military checkpoints from reaching the Old City market, merchants say they face a silent war by the Israeli army. 

'If we leave our shops, they will be completely closed and taken over by the settlers'

- Mesbah al-Hamouri, shop owener 

Mesbah al-Hamouri, 74, owns a shop that sells accessories on the road leading to the Ibrahimi Mosque. He inherited it from his father and has worked there for 55 years.

Due to the closures, his business runs at a loss, severely impacting his quality of life. 

But despite making less than 100 shekels ($26) from it a week, he refuses to leave or close it.

“I was born here and I love this area,” al-Hamouri told MEE. 

"If we leave our shops, they will be completely closed and taken over by the settlers.”