Description

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces detained five Palestinians at a women-only protest in the southern West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, witnesses and security officials said.

The women, wearing traditional Palestinian dress, gathered near Shuhada street in the city center calling for Israel to end its closure of the main thoroughfare.

A group of Israeli settlers attacked the women, and Israeli forces detained four protesters, as well as Palestine TV correspondent Diya Al-Junaidi, a Ma'an reporter said.

Israeli soldiers fired sound bombs and tear gas at the group of demonstrators, while shoving the group in order to disperse them, he added.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said five women were detained and transferred to custody, but she had no record of forces using dispersal weapons.

Shuhada Street, a main road in Hebron's once-bustling center, has been closed to Palestinians since an Israeli settler shot dead 29 Palestinians worshiping in Ibrahimi mosque in 1994.

Hebron was split into areas of Palestinian and Israeli control under a 1997 agreement.

The Israeli military-controlled H2 zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque -- also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs -- and the once thriving Shuhada street, now just shuttered shops fronts and closed homes.