Watch.. 750 Palestinian families under curfew for about 100 days | Policy

Al Jazeera reporter

Hebron – As Israel's aggression against the Gaza Strip began on October 7, the occupation tightened restrictions on residents of Hebron's Old City. South West Bank, The comprehensive curfew imposed on the population is approaching its 100th day.

Since the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which began in 2000, the Israeli occupation has taken measures that significantly restrict the freedoms of the Palestinian people in the same area and elsewhere.

For the past two decades, the Al-Muhtasib family has been forced to use the windows of their home to get in and out, and they set up a ladder to do so because the door to their home was closed and unusable. Occupation, a checkpoint was set up in front of Ibrahimi Mosque on the road leading to it.

Saher Al-Muhtaseb, a young man, told Al Jazeera that his family had become accustomed to the new door, through which they could access their belongings and needs, receive guests and transport patients.

Special case

Imad Hamdan, chairman of the government committee Hebron Reconstruction Committee, said the situation in the old city of Hebron is “very special because there is a settlement in the center of the city, which has made the center of the city since the outbreak of the Gaza war The Zone had been in a disastrous situation, and the war lasted for about 100 years.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, he added, “Since October 7, 2023, approximately 750 families have been subject to the curfew, covering an estimated area of ​​three-quarters of Hebron's Old City.”

He continued, “This makes the area more like a disaster zone, with citizens unable to stand on their balconies and look out.”

He said there are about 18 checkpoints and military posts around the old city, “and the total number of obstacles between military posts and checkpoints or control points is 101 within one square kilometer.”

He said the Old City was subject to “collective punishment, and if the situation escalates in Nablus or Jenin or even Gaza, there will be a curfew in the Old City, and today the aggression against Gaza is ongoing, there will be a curfew in central Hebron.”

Imad called on the international community to “view the Old City of Hebron from a humanitarian perspective after the war in Gaza ceases.”

Most of the buildings in the Old City are old-fashioned buildings dating back to the Mamluk (1250-1517) and Ottoman (1517-1924) eras. In 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared a “protected area” in the town as a site of “special universal value”.

It is worth noting that the Hebron Agreement Liberation Organization In 1997, the Palestinian Authority and Israel divided the city into two parts: District 1, which occupied about 80% of the city and was then under the Palestinian Authority; District 2, which is still under Israeli control and is the seat of Israel . The Ibrahimi Mosque is located here and settlement outposts are scattered throughout.