Hebron Sealed and Razed as Israel Votes on Tuesday
Israeli forces demolished homes in two Hebron districts today and sealed every entrance to the city, which Palestinian officials say has left residents unable to enter or leave. Estimates of those displaced range from 300 families to 2,200 people. Around 70 people were arrested across the West Bank.
The displacement figures do not agree and should not be averaged: the municipality puts it at about 300 families, some 1,500 people, with 35 hectares destroyed or marked for destruction, while the mayor is quoted by one outlet at more than a thousand displaced and by another at 2,200. He also says the plan is to clear 2,500 people from about a third of a square kilometre. Today’s demolitions were in Ein Deir Baha and Farsh al-Hawa, different districts from the one cleared overnight. One thing we reported this morning cannot yet be resolved: a temporary court order halting demolitions, obtained on Friday by two factory owners, has not been mentioned since by any outlet we can read, so whether it was lifted, narrowed or simply bypassed in a different district is unknown. Soldiers have been marking houses with sprayed black crosses, and residents say a prominent family’s home has been commandeered and hung with flags. The mayor says the operation is “driven by the elections”.