Description

Israeli soldiers smile as they arrest a Palestinian man in Hebron. The army has put the city under closure while it searches for three kidnapped teenagers. (photo: Activestills.org)

A Palestinian youth, arrested and blindfolded by Israeli soldiers during the closure on Hebron. (photo: Activestills)

Israeli soldiers walk near a burning tire in Hebron. (photo: Activestills)

IDF soldiers in Hebron. (photo: Activestills)
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Israel has restricted the movement of of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in response to the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers. Arrests have included Palestinian parliament members and prisoners released in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.

Text by Michael Omer-Man for 972May
Photos by Tess Scheflan and Oren Ziv / Activestills.org

Since three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped outside a West Bank settlement six days ago, the Israeli military has placed massive and arbitrary restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in most of the southern West Bank.

The entire city of Hebron has been under complete closure for days, and a number of other major checkpoints in the southern West Bank, everything south of Bethlehem, have been closed to Palestinian traffic. Impromptu or temporary checkpoints have been erected elsewhere, restricting freedom of movement.

Arbitrary travel restrictions were placed on Palestinians whose official place of residence is Hebron, including preventing certain categories of Hebronites from leaving the West Bank to Jordan.

A consortium of Palestinian human rights organizations on Tuesday described the restrictions, closures and arrests as collective punishment.

“Although some of the measures carried out by the Israeli forces in large parts of the West Bank may have a link to the investigation into the disappearances, the methods employed are indiscriminate in their nature and are undermining the fundamental rights of the persons concerned,” the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) wrote in a statement.

The group added that such actions indicate punitive measures against large portions of a protected population, therefore, violating Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. An official Palestinian government statement leveled similar accusations.

Israeli military and political officials have stated clearly that in addition to freeing the kidnapped Israeli teenagers, the current operation has a second goal: damaging Hamas’ military, social and media infrastructure in the West Bank.

Read also: Israel’s crackdown moves beyond Hamas militants

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