A-Ras neighborhood, Hebron city center: Israeli settlers escorted by soldiers throw stones at homes and parked cars and pepper-spray resident in the face in front of police

On Sunday, 18 September 2022, at around 2:00 A.M., dozens of settlers arrived in the a-Ras neighborhood in the Hebron city center. The settlers attacked homes with stones and vandalized parked cars, in the presence of soldiers who stood by. Neighborhood residents threw stones at the settlers to fend them off, and then one of the soldiers hurled a stun grenade at the residents.

Yusri Idris (55), who lives in the nearby neighborhood of Wadi al-Hasin, arrived at the scene after one of the residents informed him his car had been vandalized. The soldiers pushed Idris and tried to remove him from the area, and when he refused to leave, a settler sprayed pepper spray in his face. The soldiers and police officers who were present at the scene did not intervene and did not help him.

The settlers remained in the neighborhood until 3:00 A.M. The police officers on site took statements from Idris and Muhammad al-Ja’bari (28), a resident of the a-Ras neighborhood whose car was hit, and suggested they file a complaint at the police station in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.

The next morning, 19 September 2022, at around 9:00 A.M., the two went to the police station in Kiryat Arba, where they had to wait outside for more than two hours before being let in to submit their complaints.

In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Manal al-Ja’bari, Yusri Idris (55), a father of three, said:

Around 2:00 A.M., I was woken up by a relative who called to tell me that settlers were wrecking my car, which was parked 50 meters from the house. I went out there quickly, and when I arrived, I saw more than 30 settlers throwing stones at houses in the neighborhood and four cars that had already been vandalized, one of them mine.

I tried to get closer to my car but there were dozens of soldiers there, and some of them pushed me and tried to get me away from there. When I insisted on getting closer to the car, a settler came up to me and sprayed pepper spray in my eyes in front of the soldiers, as well as police officers who were sitting there in a cruiser. None of them bothered to help me, and the soldiers continued to try to push me away, but I insisted on staying. There was also a security guard there from the Kiryat Arba settlement, who ordered me to leave.

The settlers continued to throw stones at houses until around 3:00 A.M., and only then went back towards Kiryat Arba. After they left, a police officer who was there took my statement and suggested I file a complaint at the Kiryat Arba police station.

The next day, at around 9:00 A.M., I went there together with Muhammad al-Ja’bari (28), whose car was also damaged, to file a complaint. We waited outside for more than two hours, in the heat, until a plainclothes police officer took us into a room where there was a police officer. The officer spoke broken Arabic and tried to blame the residents of the neighborhood for what happened. He asked me if I had enemies and said that maybe al-Ja’bari or some other Palestinian destroyed the cars. I told him he could check the army’s cameras installed there to make sure it was the settlers.

So far, no one has gotten back to me about the complaint.

Muhammad al-Ja’bari (28), from a-Ras neighborhood, said in his testimony:

I live on the first floor of a building overlooking the main road from Kiryat Arba to al-Haram al-Ibrahimi (Tomb of the Patriarchs), about 100 meters from the a-Rajabi building.

That night, my family and I were woken up at around 2:00 A.M. by gunfire and shouting in the street. I opened the front door, and suddenly five soldiers and two security personnel from the Kiryat Arba settlement showed up there. They pushed me inside the apartment and yelled at me not to come out. I looked out the window at the main road and saw more than 30 settlers, some of them armed, throwing stones at parked cars belonging to families from my neighborhood, including mine. There was a police car there, and a lot of soldiers who were escorting the settlers and did not intervene.

We couldn’t leave the house for more than an hour, until the settlers went towards Kiryat Arba. When I finally went outside, there were still a military jeep and a police car there, which had been there the entire attack. I went to check on my car and saw all its windows were smashed, along with the windows of three other cars, and there was also damage to the body. The police officer who was there asked me for information about the cars and then took pictures of them and asked us to file complaints with the Kiryat Arba police.

While I was checking on my car, I saw my neighbor, Yusri Idris. His car was vandalized and a settler sprayed pepper spray in his face. In the morning, we went together to the police station in Kiryat Arba to file a complaint, and we waited outside for more than two hours until they let us in. The officer who took my statement spoke broken Arabic and asked if I had video footage of the settlers’ attacks. I told him that if he was interested, he should go and check the army’s cameras.

I signed my statement and left the police station around noon.