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Random detentions, abuse, and humiliation by Israeli soldiers without cause: this is what daily life has looked like for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in recent months, according to testimonies gathered by the human rights group B’Tselem and published in a new report last week.
While most Palestinian armed resistance in the West Bank is concentrated in the northern cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nablus, Israeli soldiers seem to have decided that, after October 7, all Palestinians are Hamas supporters — and nobody is innocent.
“It appears that Palestinian residents of Hebron may, at any moment, fall victim to brutal violence openly inflicted on them as they go about their daily affairs,” the report explains. “The victims were chosen randomly, with no connection to their actions.”
None of the 25 Palestinians who testified to B’Tselem had participated in violent activities, or even joined any recent non-violent protests. Only two of them were actually arrested and taken away to military facilities, and both were later released without any charges filed. The remaining 23 were freed after the abuse ended.
In several cases, soldiers searched Palestinians’ mobile phones for “evidence” of support for Hamas: “A ‘suspicious’ picture or signs of following updates on Gaza … were enough to justify transfer to one of the military posts scattered throughout Hebron and subjection to physical and mental abuse for hours, at gunpoint, while handcuffed and blindfolded,” the report notes.
With over 200,000 residents, Hebron is the most populous Palestinian city in the West Bank, and the only one with Israeli settlers inside it: approximately 900 settlers live under the protection of around 1,000 Israeli soldiers.
The uptick in harassment and abuse of Palestinians in Hebron is not happening in a vacuum. Since October 7, the Israeli army has killed over 730 Palestinians in the West Bank — in part due to the re-adoption of significant air power in the territory for the first time since the end of the Second Intifada nearly 20 years ago. Simultaneously, Israeli settlers have ethnically cleansed over 50 rural Palestinian communities with the military’s backing.
The incidents investigated by B’Tselem researchers occurred in central Hebron between May and August of this year. Almost all of the victims were young men. The large number of testimonies, the presence of multiple soldiers at most of the incidents, and the fact that they sometimes occurred inside military facilities, suggest that random detentions and abuse may be the army’s unofficial policy in the city.
‘The soldier asked if I liked Hamas, and then beat me in the testicles’
On June 12, Hisham Abu Is’ifan, a 54-year-old father of six and resident of Hebron’s Wadi Al-Hassin neighborhood, was on his way to his job as a clerk at the Education Ministry when he was stopped and attacked by soldiers.
“[A soldier] came over and pushed me, and then he ordered me to hand over my ID card and phone,” Abu Is’ifan testified to B’Tselem. “Before I could give him the phone, he grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved me to the ground. My back hurt a lot and I shouted … When I kept shouting in pain, the soldier sat on me and pressed both his knees hard into my chest, until I felt I couldn’t breathe from the pain.”
Yasser Abu Markhiyeh, a 52-year-old father of four from the Tel Rumeida neighborhood, was abused at a checkpoint in Hebron on July 14 because of what soldiers found on his cell phone. “When I got to him, [the soldier] ordered me to hand over my ID card,” he recounted. “I did, and he ordered me to unlock my phone and hand it over, too. I heard him talk to someone on the wireless radio and say my name.
“About five minutes later, four soldiers arrived at the checkpoint,” Abu Markhiyeh continued. “One of them spoke to me in Arabic and accused me of contacting Al Jazeera and slandering the Israeli army. I told him that I had, in fact, spoken to Al Jazeera three weeks earlier about soldiers who attacked me on June 22 … Then he tied my hands behind my back with zip ties and fastened them very tight. Two soldiers pounced on me and started beating me, including in the testicles, for several minutes.”
Mahmoud ‘Alaa Ghanem, an 18-year-old who lives in the city of Dura in the Hebron district, was attacked by soldiers in Hebron on July 8. Like Abu Markhiyeh, he also had his phone inspected by soldiers. Upon opening Ghanem’s Instagram, they found a meme of an Israeli soldier saving young children on October 7 with the word “Photoshop” written on it, mocking the army’s apparent ineptitude in the face of the Hamas attack that day.
“He asked me about it, and I said it was just a picture,” Ghanem told B’Tselem. “He said, ‘We’ll show you Photoshop.’”
After a few minutes, Ghanem was put on the floor of a jeep and driven away. “One of the soldiers grabbed me by the hair and slammed my face into the back door, three times in a row,” he said. “I felt that my mouth and nose were bleeding. The soldier asked me, ‘Do you like Hamas?’ I said no, and then he grabbed me by the arm, twisted it around my neck and strangled me … Two soldiers started slapping me and asking me again: ‘Do you like Hamas?’ Again, I said I didn’t, and then one of them hit me hard in the testicles. I screamed in pain, and then he hit me harder in the same place. I begged him in the name of God to stop hitting me.”
‘They whipped us with a belt all over our bodies’
Some of the testimonies describe physical abuse that went beyond beatings. “One of the soldiers came to me and put his cigarette out on my right leg,” Muhammad A-Natsheh, a 22-year-old from Tel Rumeida who was detained on July 14, told B’Tselem. “He put it out slowly, so it would hurt more. One of them asked: ‘Does it hurt?’ When I said yes, he punched me in the back of the head, stood on my legs and pressed down hard.”
A-Natsheh continued: “One of them got an office chair and put it on my legs. He sat on it from time to time, which hurt a lot. They kept swearing at me the whole time, and one of them spat at me, too. It went on like that for about an hour, and then one of the soldiers said to me in Arabic: ‘We’ll rape you’. One of them grabbed my head, and another soldier tried to open my mouth and shove a rubber object in it. I made a huge effort not to open my mouth. I heard him say in Hebrew: ‘Film him, film him.’
“Then a soldier who spoke Arabic came,” he went on. “He came over and ordered me to get up, but I couldn’t. He grabbed me by the neck, lifted me up and made me stand facing the wall, and then he started pushing my head left and right violently with his hands, saying: ‘If I see you in this place again, I’ll rape you and kill you. I’ll do the same to anyone else I see here.’”
The phenomenon of soldiers recording abuse on their phones to share with others was common to several of the testimonies. “The soldiers brought ice and put it down my underwear,” Qutaybah Abu Ramileh, a 25-year old from the neighborhood of Al-Salayma who was detained on July 8 along with his 22-year-old brother, Yazan, told B’Tselem. “Yazan told me afterwards they did the same thing to him. They also poured an alcoholic drink into our clothes. I heard a soldier talking to a girl on the phone. I think it was a video call. They were laughing and making fun of us.
“One of the soldiers kicked us in the head and face while cursing us and our mothers,” he continued. “Then, suddenly, I heard the sound of a leather belt coming from above, and one of them started whipping us with a belt on our heads and all over our bodies … The soldiers stepped on our [bare] feet. The beating with the belt lasted about three minutes, and then the soldiers brought a bucket and put it on my head. Later, I understood they also put a bucket on Yazan. They started playing with a ball or something like that, and threw it at the bucket on my head. It hurt every time the ball hit the bucket. It was hard to breathe and I felt like I was suffocating.”
As seen in videos that have come out of Gaza in recent months, soldiers’ abuse of Palestinians in Hebron is often accompanied by ordering the detainees to condemn Hamas. Mu’tasem Da’an, a 46-year-old journalist and father of eight from the Wadi A-Nasara neighborhood, was detained on July 28 and ordered to unlock his phone.
“They looked through it and found content to do with the war in Gaza,” he recounted. “The soldiers blindfolded me and led me about 250 meters on foot to the military camp near the southern gate of the Kiryat Arba settlement … They sang songs about revenge against Hamas in Hebrew, praising Israel and calling for [the] killing of women and children. They made us repeat the words and curse the Palestinians. I understand Hebrew very well.”
Although most victims have been men, there were also women among those who testified to B’Tselem. ‘Abir Id’es-Jaber, a 33-year-old mother of four from the neighborhood of Al-Manshar, was attacked together with her husband on Aug. 21 while they were in their car.
“The soldiers ordered us to leave,” she said. “My husband turned the car around, and the soldiers were still surrounding us. One of them looked at me and winked. He gave me a mocking smile and then I saw him pull the pin on a stun grenade and throw it between my legs. I pushed the grenade away and it fell under the seat. I shouted, ‘Grenade! Grenade!’ and ducked to the other side. [My husband] turned around to me when I shouted, so the grenade exploded under his face. He passed out. Thank God, the car stopped by itself.”
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In response to +972’s request for comment, a spokesperson for the Israeli army claimed that they were unaware of all of the incidents described except the one involving Abu Markhiyeh. “The IDF treats detainees in accordance with international law, and acts to investigate and deal with exceptional incidents that deviate from orders,” the statement said. “In cases where there is a suspicion of a criminal offense that justifies the opening of an investigation, a military criminal investigation is launched, and upon its conclusion, the findings are forwarded to the Military Advocate General for examination.”
A version of this article was first published in Hebrew on Local Call. Read it here.
