Aggressive Settler attacks Palestinian schoolboys in Hebron’s Old City

An aggressive Israeli settler Wednesday morning attacked Palestinian schoolboys en route to their school at Tal Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron’s Old City, said security sources.

Notorious settler Anat Cohen assaulted Palestinian schoolboys en route to Qurtuba school in the Hebron neighborhood of Tal Rumeida. Israeli forces also obstructed teachers’ access to the school.

Palestinian military liaison office in Hebron said in a press release that they intervened and managed to secure schoolboys and teachers’ access to the school.

Director of the Palestinian military liaison in Hebron Muhammad Eteiwi called Palestinians to immediately report any Israeli violations and assaults, so that liaison staff could reduce response time.  

Cohen is notorious for frequently harassing Palestinians and internationals in Hebron’s Old City as well as school children heading to Qurtuba middle school, adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah in the center of Hebron city.

Israeli forces fenced off the school’s stairs with barbed wire in 2002. The only route to the school, which has been vandalized and set on fire, is a path up a steep hill. Schoolboys and teachers have to pass the checkpoint of Shuhada Street and metal detectors to get to their school, which inflicts persistent suffering on them.

Twenty two years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire at Palestinian Muslim worshippers, killing 29. Four Palestinians were killed on the same day in the clashes that broke out around the Mosque in response to the massacre.

In the aftermath, the mosque, known to Jews as Tomb of the Patriarchs, was divided in two, with the larger part turned into a synagogue while heavy scrutiny was imposed on the Palestinians and areas closed completely to them, including an important market and the main street, Shuhada street.

An estimated 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers live under the protection of thousands of soldiers in Hebron’s city center. The city is home to over 30,000 Palestinians.

Source : WAFA