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Photos: CPT

Israeli forces weld shut two Palestinian homes

Zuheira moves her chair to sit outside her house. An illegal settler stands in front of her.

Zuheira Oweida Dandis

Israeli settlers were present antagonizing the crowd. They laughed and joked with soldiers as the doors were welded shut.

Smiles and jokes as a home is closed, an old woman is taken in an ambulance and a crowd is pushed around.

At some points CPTers and others were physically and aggressively prevented from standing with Aamal & Zuheira.

Photos by Christian Peacemakers

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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Monday expelled two elderly women from their home in Hebrons Shuhada Street and sealed their property, locals told Ma'an.

Resident Mufid al-Sharabati said that Israeli forces raided the home of Zuheira Oweida Dandis, 80, and Amal Dandis, 52, and forced them to leave their home before sealing the property.

Witnesses said Israeli forces claimed they sealed the property for security reasons, without providing further details.

Israel started restricting access to Shuhada street after Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque and shot dead 29 Palestinians in 1994.

Israel closed the road during the Second Intifada, and a military checkpoint restricts Palestinian access to the area.

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Report from Christian Peacemakers, Hebron
posted to Facebook

Israeli forces weld two Palestinian homes shut on Shuhada Street
January 19 · · Taken in Hebron, West Bank
Today Israeli forces welded Zuheira Hashem Dundes front doors shut. Living in a rented apartment across the street, her family had owned these two houses for centuries on Shuhada Street, most of which is closed to Palestinians.

Zuheira sat on a chair, at times crying, as she, her daughter, Palestinian residents, activists and journalists, and internationals from CPT and ISM questioned the soldiers who were carrying out the illegal act. At one point she picked up her chair and sat in front of her house in an act of resistance, before she was forced to move.

Soldiers soon began pushing the crowd back across the street and away from the houses, violently shoving a CPTer who was taking photographs. Meanwhile, settlers were allowed to stand close and antagonize the crowd.

Zuheria has high blood pressure and diabetes, and after fainting was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Zuheira asked that a CPTer accompany her in the ambulance, but the IDF prevented the CPT from joining Zuheira. By 1:30, the soldiers had finished welding the doors shut, and a few remained with a settler, who was seemingly in a jovial mood. More information to come in an upcoming blog post and video by CPT.