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On 7 August, settlers from outposts in downtown Hebron burned part of the Kayyali Mosque, located in the center of the city. This mosque, as with other shops and homes, has been closed for seven years. The Waqf Chairman in Palestine, Tyseer Tamimi, issued a statement calling human rights organizations and the international community to put pressure on Israel in order to stop the settlers’ attacks against Muslim holy places in Hebron.

On 12 August, settlers from Kiryat Arba’ stoned many houses in the Wadi Nassara area to the south of the settlement. The houses that were stoned belong to Monder Ahmad Jaber, Faisl Ahmad Jaber and Mohammed Ayed Ja’baree. The incidents occurred during the evening and in the sight of the soldiers. Monder Jaber said, “Tens of settlers, most of them young and armed, stood on the main road 20 meters to the south of our houses and threw stones at our houses for half hour. All this forced us to stay in the homes and we couldn’t leave. We cried on the soldiers who were very close. They didn’t come from the beginning but later they came and stopped them.”

On 17 August, approximately 100 settlers from the Kiryat Arba’ settlement to the east of the city tried again to occupy a strip of land to the west of the settlement. The settlers began their attacks and attempts to take the land five years ago. The five dunam of land belongs to Abed al-Kareem Ibraheem Ja’baree. Ja’baree reports that the settlers from time to time came and stayed on it. Two months ago, settlers attacked him and his son ‘Ala while they worked their land. During the same day, settlers from Ramot Yashai outpost in the downtown of the city, stoned 10-year-old Shareef Abu Aisha, and 11 -year-old Ziyd Abu Aisha, chasing after them to beat them while the children were walking near their home in Tel Rumeida. The father of the children, Tayseer Abu Aisha, reports, “Such attacks and aggressions happened many times and the soldiers who were already in the nearby checkpoint didn’t do anything to stop the settlers.”

On 27 August, a settler from an outpost in the downtown of the city ran over 34-year-old Mryam Mohmmed Khaleel, while she was walking on the main road in the center of the city, following which the settler ran away. The residents took her to al-Ahlee Hospital. She was injured on her back and left hand.

On 30 August, hundreds of settlers from many settlements in the West Bank participated in the celebration for the opening of a new long settlement road linking Gush Etzion and settlements to the east and north of Bethlehem and east of Jerusalem. The celebration started in the middle of the day. This road, which was built on Palestinian land to the east of Bethlehem, separated the nearby villages from each other and more than a thousand dunam were confiscated for it.

On 11 September, tens of settlers from settlements and outposts in the city took over al-Aqbat mosque in Hebron, and started building on its roof. In 1994, this mosque was closed according to a military order following the massacre of Palestinians in the nearby Abraham Mosque by a settler named Baruch Goldstein. The mosque was closed, considered part of the vegetable market that announced by the Israelis as a closed military zone. However, during this time in which the military didn’t allow the Palestinian residents to use their buildings and shops and the mosque, the settlers came and started building on the roof and using it. All this happened in plain sight of the soldiers.

On 13 September, Israeli Army officers in Hebron closed the Abraham Mosque for two days in order to allow the settlers to pray in it. On the same day, the settlers coming from Kiryat Arba’ and other settlements in the West Bank and Israel stoned many houses during their walk to the center of the city, especially those located next to the main road between Kiryat Arba’ and Hebron.

On 16 September, one settler ran over seven-year-old Hasan Ali Arfa’yya, from downtown Hebron. The event happened on the main street in the center of the city during the evening. After the incident, the settler escaped to an outpost in the city and didn’t give any aid to the child who lied on the ground until the residents came and took him to ‘Alya Hospital in the city.

On 17 September, the Israeli Civil Authority issued an order to confiscate 325 dunam of land belonging to families from the towns of Artas and Alkhader, south of Bethlehem. The order, number 29/7n, was issued by Jadi Shmni, an Israeli military officer in West Bank. The aim of the confiscation is to build separation fences around the Efrata settlement, located to the south of the two towns. The land belongs to the Issa and Salah families from Alkhader, and ‘Ayesh and Sa’ad from Artas. Adna d Subaih, the mayor of Alkhader, said that this new confiscation order aims to take more land for the settlement and to prevent the farmers from using it.

On 19 September, an Israeli military officer in the Hebron region gave an order to the Islamic Waqf that the Abraham Mosque will be closed for the Moslems during all the day to allow settlers to use the Mosque. This type of order has been given many times during September because of Jewish high holidays. Waqf sources in the city were surprised from such orders because it said that the Mosque was already divided for both sides—Moslems and Jews—and each one already has their place for prayer.

On 23 September, settlers from the Nokedeem settlement, east of Bethlehem, attacked a Palestinian ambulance and injured one of the aid officers. The ambulance, belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent, drove in the middle of the night to villages to the east of Bethlehem to take ill from there. On the way, the ambulance was stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint and forced to follow a civilian car that went into the settlement. There, the Palestinians faced seven armed settlers who started to beat them by using sticks, rocks and butt of their guns. The driver, Sameer Abu Sara, succeeded to escape to a near Palestinian home. While the aid officer Mohmmed Abu Ajameyya was arrested for two hours. He was beaten and injured over many places in his body. Later he was released and then taken to a hospital, following the intervention of the Palestinian Authority.

 On September 26, the Israeli Supreme Court took the decision to allow settlers from Sosya settlement, south east of Yatta, to take and confiscate around 15 dunam located near the settlement. Local Council sources in the area report that the settlers took by force this land four months ago and they have planted it with grapes. The owners, Jameel and Talal abu Hoshiyy, raised the case to the Court. Now the court allowed the settlers to continue to work the land, which means that the court gave an official order for them to confiscate it and annex the land for the settlement. Despite this, the owners are going to appeal again against the decision.

Nablus and Northern of West Bank

On 18 August, settlers from Borkan settlement, near the Hares village in the Nablus district uprooted 30 olive trees from land near the settlement. The land belongs to Sulaiman Shmlawee who reports that “the settlers want to take my land in spite of the fact that I got a court order that my land was not to be confiscated and I have the right to work in it as usual.”

On 17 September, 14-year-old Mohammed Ya’qoub died after a settler bus ran over him on the main junction between the Kufel Hares village and Ariel settlement in the Nablus district.

On 25 August, two residents from the village of Oreef in the Nablus district were injured after settlers from nearby settlement of Itsehar fired of them. The injured people are 16-year-old Hamd Allah Zaidan Safadi,—who was injured in his right shoulder—and 17-year-old Jihad Sa’ad Safadi, who was injured in the back. His case is described as a serious. Both were taken to the hospital in Nablus. The event happened while the residents stood on hill on the opposite of the settlement and participated in a wedding celebration. At this time, a settler came on the main road and left his car; then he opened the fire on the people with his M-16 gun. Local sources stated that the settler may have thought the big group of the people were engaging in demonstrations or wanted to throw stones or something like this.   

On 22 September, settlers threw stones on Palestinian cars on the main road between Ramallah and Jenin. A driver, Mohmmed Doqqa said that “while I was driving my taxi on the road near the Itsehar settlement, a group of settlers threw stones and they broke the front windshield of my car. Other drivers told me that that day, for five hours, they engaged in throwing stones on this road.”

On 24 September, 22-year-old Iyad Fawzee Abu Mutawe’, from the town of Tobas, was injured when a settler from Shigmot Mahola fired at him while he was working his land with his family, located near the settlement. Iyad was taken to an Israeli Hospital for treatment. Local sources stated that the settlers attack the farmers in this area in order to prevent them from working their land because they want to confiscate it.

On 30 September, settlers from many areas in the West Bank engaged in a large demonstrations and occupied many hills; they claimed that they are going to build settlements on those hills. In the Hebron region, more than 200 settlers occupied a hill called Jabal al-Jumjuma to the east of Halhoul, which is near the Road 60. In the Bethlehem district, approximately 100 settlers from Efrata and the Gush Etzion settlement occupied a hill called Tallet Abu Za’ror to the south of Artas village. The same thing occurred in the Nablus District where around 200 settlers from Alon Moreh occupied some hills near the settlement and tens of settlers from Kodomeem near Kufor Kaddom village occupied two hills near the settlement. The actions all went the same way, the settlers brought tents and raised slogans against Arabs, claiming that they will build settlements on those hills. According to Palestinian sources, it seems that this action came following coordination between the settlers in the West Bank and the Israeli military. In all cases the settlers activities took place under the military protection.