On Saturday afternoon, 5 September 2020, at around 5:00 P.M., Palestinian brothers Muhammad (12) and Ahmad (14) Jaber were flying a kite near their home in the Tel Rumeidah neighborhood of Hebron. They let go and the kite landed in a nearby military camp set up on a-Shuhada Street.
A soldier was about to hand it back when a child from the nearby settlement came up and broke it, while it was still in the soldier’s hands. The soldier gave the broken kite back to the two brothers and removed the young settler. A few minutes later, an Israeli settler arrived from the direction of the settlement and started throwing stones at the brothers.
Muhammad and Ahmad’s parents, who were watching from their rooftop, shouted at the settler to stop throwing stones and went over to protect their children. At that point, dozens of settlers arrived and started throwing stones at the family, who were forced to run inside, some into their home and others into a neighbor’s house.
One of the stones hit Lana Jaber (15) in the leg and another hit Zahreyeh a-Natsheh, a neighbor who was sitting outside her home, in the chest. Dozens of soldiers were summoned to the area and distanced the settlers, who nevertheless stayed in the vicinity until around 10:00 P.M.
At that point, an Israel Police patrol car arrived. The officers took statements from the Jaber family and advised them to go to the police station in Kiryat Arba to file a complaint. A Red Crescent ambulance took the two injured women to a hospital in Hebron, where they were examined, treated and discharged.
In her testimony, Ayala Jaber (41), a married mother of six, related:
My husband, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Jaber, and I have lived in this area for ten years and suffer attacks by settlers all the time. They increase on Fridays, Saturdays and Jewish holidays. We have six children between the ages of 8 and 17, and the settlers often attack them when they pass through a-Shuhada Street on their way to school or to buy groceries. We’re also harassed by soldiers at the checkpoints, especially at the Beit Hadassah Checkpoint (a-Shuhada). It has a locked gate that blocks passage to our house and the soldiers only let people through after they check their names on a list.
On Saturday, my husband and I were on our roof while our sons, Ahmad and Muhammad, were playing with a kite in the back yard. The kite flew into the military camp opposite our house, on a-Shuhada Street. The kids called out to one of the soldiers and asked him to hand them the kite back. He was about to hand it over when a settler kid who looked about 10 years old broke it. The soldier removed the kid and gave the broken kite back to my sons.
At that point, another kid from the settlement who looked about 15 came up and started throwing stones at my boys. My husband started yelling at him and we both rushed out to the street. Dozens of settlers between the ages of 10 and 25 started attacking us with stones. Then about 40 soldiers showed up, apparently called there by the first soldier, and started to drive the settlers away.
We ran to escape the stones, and on the way, one of them hit my daughter Lana in the leg. She was in pain and could barely walk. We made it into the yard, but even though the soldiers tried to make the settlers leave, they kept throwing stones at our homes and at other houses in the neighborhood.
Our neighbor Um Haitham was sitting outside her home and was hit by a stone. They also stoned another neighbor’s house .The settlers stayed on the street until around 10:00 P.M., when a police car with four officers drove up. One of the officers spoke Arabic. They took our statements and told us to go file a complaint at the station.
About a half hour later, a Red Crescent ambulance came for Lana and our neighbor, and I rode with them to Muhammed ‘Ali al-Muhtaseb Hospital. They were examined and treated, and we left there at around 11:00 P.M. When we got home, we saw that the settlers had already left but several soldiers were still next to our house.
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