4/1/06 SATURDAY
An EAPPI member was assaulted by an Israeli settler as she was accompanying Palestinian school
children on their way home. The attack happened about 5 meters from a small Israeli army outpost. She
was stoned, hit in the chin, and later required stitches.
Three eyewitnesses to the assault went into the Israeli police station with a photograph of the settler
offender and made statements. The EAPPI member also went to make a statement the next day. The
police are yet to get back to her about the attack.

4/8/06 SATURDAY
Today in Tel Rumeida, on the first Shabbot of the Passover school holidays, two Palestinian were
assaulted by settlers on Shuhada Street. One man was punched by a group of settlers and a man had
stones thrown at him while returning to his house.

At 2:15pm, a Palestinian man was walking down Tel Rumeida hill to the checkpoint when halfway down
he encountered three 20 year old settlers. The settlers said something to the Palestinian man and the
Palestinian man and the settlers started to argue. Two HRWs walked to the four men as a soldier walked
up the hill from the checkpoint.

One of the HRW placed themselves between the man and the settlers as the other HRW yelled at the
soldier to come help. One of the settlers threw a punch over the international and hit the face of the
Palestinian man. The soldier yelled and the men ran away.

The soldier called the police and the soldiers at the top of the hill. Apparently the soldiers at the top of
the hill tried to catch the three settlers but they ran away. The Palestinian man left through the checkpoint.

Later the police asked the two HRWs if 3 other settlers walking by were the same three but they were
not.

A Palestinian boy was attacked at 4.30pm by five settlers on Shuhada Street. The settlers knocked him
off his bicycle and attacked him in full view of the soldiers.

Later in the afternoon fifteen settlers were seen by Human Rights Workers attempting to break into a
Palestinian home near Beit Hadassah settlement, the settlers became aware of the internationals and
moved on, crossing into H1. H1 is the Palestinian controlled area of Hebron and settlers are restricted
from being there.

Human Rights Workers monitored the settlers as they walked through the Palestinian neighborhood
targeting Palestinian homes. When the settlers became aware that they were being observed they left
H1. However, they then attacked the Human Rights Workers, and tried to steal their camera. The
internationals were kicked, punched and subjected to threats. Israeli police were nearby but did not
pursue the settlers.

At around 8pm, the IDF occupied the community centre in Tel Rumeida. The troops unloaded a large
truck of equipment and sleeping bags, signifying that they were to stay for a long period of time. They
draped an Israeli flag over the roof of the building.

Three ISM activists approached the door of the community centre with rackets and ping pong balls,
requesting that the army let them in to play ping pong. After the troops refused their request, the
activists asked them if it would be possible to enter only the first floor while the troops occupied the roof
and until when the troops would be occupying the building.

After several minutes of persistent request a local resident approached the commander of the unit and
explained to him that the first floor of the building should be made available to people in the community,
while the army continued to occupy the other floors. The commander agreed to allow us to enter the first
floor and told us that the floor would be kept open to the public for the immediate future.

.

4/13/06 THURSDAY
At 2:00pm, three HRWs were in the apartment when the noticed a group of 7 settler boys walking up the
street to the Jewish cemetery. They watched the boys and saw that they did not stop at the cemetery but
continued to walk up the road. Three HRWs then walked up the hill, above the road used by the settlers,
to intercept with the settlers further on. The HRWs met with the group of boys at the intersection and
after about 2 minutes of the settlers taunting the HRWs continued to walk up the road.

The settlers then went through the hole in the fence went on the other side into a Palestinian neighborhood. The HRWs went through the hole and followed the settlers.

The HRWs then witnessed the group of settler boys roughly 12 to 16 years of age proceed through a
Palestinian neighborhood. Several of the Palestinian families seemed surprised and came to look at the
settlers but the settlers kept walking without any incident. The HRWs then briefly lost sight of the settlers
and after searching for them for two minutes found them in the courtyard of a Palestinian house. When
the settlers saw that the HRWs were watching them with a camera they left the house and went down to
the well next to the house.

They then proceeded to bathe for half an hour while the Palestinian family and the HRWs watched them.
Afterwards three or four went toward the stone staircase, walking on Palestinian houses and throwing
stones over the houses without looking to see if anyone was there (One of the HRWs stayed with the
Palestinian family on their roof to make sure that the settlers did not attack the house.).

The two HRWs followed and the settlers finally made their way down to the path leading to the school
and began to take the bags of sand for the Palestinian workers who were making a brick path and pour
them out. They stopped when the HRWs arrived. Two settler boys began to throw rocks at one of the
HRWs but missed.

One of the HRWs then went down the staircase to inform the soldier.

The settlers continued to throw stones at the remaining HRW so he went down the stone staircase to meet with the other HRW and the soldier.

A group of 10 -12 boys then ran out and surrounded the HRWs and tried to take the camera. They then
dumped a liter of water on one of the HRWs and repeatedly kicked and threw rocks at the HRWs. The
soldier did nothing to help them.

After about 3 minutes the settlers left as the HRWs moved further away since there were no Palestinians
present.

4/14/06 FRIDAY
At five or six in the morning, there was a loud explosion. When we went out at 7am, we were told that
Palestinians had thrown a bomb at five soldiers and that the checkpoint from Tel Rumeida into H1 and
the shopping area would be shut all day. No one was hurt.

As the day went on, it became clear that the soldiers lied and this was misinformation. But it was used to
make life difficult for Palestinians all day.

4/15/06 SATURDAY
At 4:30pm, four HRW were in the olive groves when they witnessed a group of 20-25 settlers bathing in
the well next to a Palestinian house. The HRWs stayed out of sight when after 15 minutes the settlers
moved to the house and kicked the door of the home for 5 seconds before noticing that the group was
watching them. They then moved out of the yard and approached the HRWs.

The settlers quickly surrounded the HRWs and taunted them for about 5 minutes. They told the HRWs
to go home and repeatedly made fun of an HRW who was attacked several weeks before: several of the
settlers were in the same group of that previous attack.

The settlers then left to go on what they called a ‘walking tour’ and went through a Palestinian
neighbourhood bordering on H1. The HRWs followed at a distance trying to keep out of sight. They
followed the settlers all the way to the entrance to the top of the hill when the settlers spotted them.

A group of 12 settlers then came and attacked the then three HRWs. One of the HRWs first tried to film
but the settlers grew angry at this and began to pick up stones so he stopped. The settlers then
attacked the group, continually pushing them back trying to make them run away, kicking, punching, and
trying to take the camera.

The attack lasted for about 5 minutes when the attacking settlers dwindled down to 3 or 4 and then left.

The HRWs then started to follow them but then decided this was not a good idea and tried to find the
missing HRW. They began to walk toward another Palestinian house when a group of border police and
police came around the corner.

After talking with them for about 5 minutes the HRWs left seeing that they were not concerned with
chasing settlers.

4/16/06 SUNDAY
At 7:30pm, six of us went out to get something to eat. When we passed the checkpoint a jeep passed. A
commander got out and told us that we wouldn’t be able to enter tonight, the area was declared closed
military zone.

We asked to see a closed military zone order, and after some time and discussion he finally showed us
a paper, of course in Hebrew. We asked who the closed military zone applied to, Palestinians, Settlers
or just us. We got the answer that it was just us. We argued that it was illegal because we were living
inside the area, and that a closed military zone not can apply to just some of the inhabitant in an area.
The commander told us that he could decide who could pass and who couldn’t.

We came into the neighborhood by another route. We discussed if we should try to find out if the order
was legal and get a good photo. But later, after the guard-shift, another volunteer was let through the
checkpoint. So we chose to believe that the commander just played with us.

4/17/06 MONDAY
This morning, the military physically forced seven human rights workers off the streets while they were
accompanying the Palestinian schoolchildren at Qurtaba school.

A group of three Israeli activists had just arrived to work on the streets and prevent settler violence and
were passing the checkpoint to go up the hill when they were stopped by the soldiers. They were held at the checkpoint until the police arrived. The police officers promptly drove them out of the area and
detained them for the rest of the day.

The soldiers then forcibly grabbed two of the internationals and forced them through the Tel Rumeida
checkpoint into the Palestinian-controlled sector of the city.

Three internationals were at the top of Tel Rumeida street when, at 7:15am, a military jeep showed up,
told us that we were in a closed military zone, and told us that we had to leave. He checked our passports and kept them, telling us to get us stuff out of the apartment and leave the neighborhood immediately or we wouldn’t get the passports back.

We asked if we could just get of the street and stay inside the apartment. We weren’t allowed. Finally we
were allowed to go and get some stuff. Then he drove down to the checkpoint with our passports, and
we were escorted outside. We came back into the neighborhood at 6:00pm through another route.

At this point, there were only four internationals in the neighborhood. All four were in the apartment,
trying to ensure that they would not be forced out of the neighborhood.

Another international purposefully tried to challenge the military order and went into the streets. The
soldiers immediately took him to the checkpoint, where he was detained against a wall. He was
repeatedly kicked and punched by the soldiers, who then shoved him through the checkpoint into the
Palestinian-controlled sector of the city.

4/18/06 TUESDAY
The military order effectively locking the internationals in their homes extended through the day. The
original order was to last until Wednesday morning.

4/19/06 WEDNESDAY
At 7am on the 19th of April, the order was said by the military to have been extended until an undisclosed date. However, soldiers have yet to produce a copy of this alleged new order.

From the rooftop of their enforced confinement in their apartment in the Tel Rumeida area, HRWs have
witnessed soldiers pointing their rifles at Palestinian children to drive them indoors while the children
were trying to play football. Palestinians in general have been largely forced off the streets.

4/20/06 THURSDAY
REPORT by Anna
At 7:00am I and another HRW were positioned in the middle of Shuhada street to monitor and accompany Palestinian children on their way to school. There were also HRWs positioned on each end of the part of the street that is accessible for Palestinians. Just like us they were paired in two.

Everything was calm until about 07.30 when a bus stopped near the settlement of Beit Hadassah. Since
buses comes here every morning, at first we didn't react at all. And only after a couple of minutes, after
the bus had already left, we realized that a group of about 15 male settlers, aged 18-20 years old, had
come off the bus. The group gathered about 100 meters away from where I was positioned and stood
very close to the stairs that the schoolchildren walks up every morning, which is in fact opposite to the
soldier’s station, with one soldier in it.

The settler group immediately turned aggressive began screaming. I and the other HRW with me slowly
started to move in the direction of the screaming and then saw them picking up stones and throwing
them in the direction of the stairs, where we had just seen three Palestinian schoolgirls walk up.
The three schoolgirls, two teachers and two HRWs were being chased and stoned up the stairs and
forced to run for their lives in the direction of the school building. Both of the HRWs are hit by big stones
in the back.

The other HRW and I are still down on the street and we're being blocked by the part of the aggressive
group that's still on the street. I was constantly trying to focus on getting the attention of the one soldier
opposite of the stairs, screaming “do you see what they're doing?”, “React!”, “they're throwing stones and attacking children”, “do something!” and “call for more soldiers”.

The soldier's response was to literally not move a muscle. All through the attack this soldier did
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

The HRW with me on the street was standing about 20 meters behind me and picked up the camera
when the stone-throwing begun. After only a few seconds of filming, about five of the settlers started
screaming “Camera! Camera!” and ran towards him. They try to pull the camera out of his hands and
tried to kicks him and the camera. The attacked HRW started running in the other direction, where there
are more soldiers positioned at the checkpoint. On the way he gets kicked and stoned and I can hear
from the other end of the street how they're repeatedly screaming “I'M GONNA KILL YOU!”

On the other end of the street, near the school, a 79 year old HRW also gets hit by stones and spitted in
the face.

When soldiers eventually gets out of his station near the school (not doing anything to protect the
attacked people, but just stepping out of their station) the attackers starts to retreat. They run back to
the end of the street were I'm still positioned with a few settlers pushing me, doing karate moves close to
my face and screaming “I'M GONNA KILL YOU” in my face. All of the retreating attackers throw stones
at me and one of them badly hit my ankle.

Five HRWs were injured during the attack. None of the originally attacked Palestinians were injured or
hit by stones. Despite being attacked, the HRWs managed to protect two Palestinian teachers and
three children who were on their way to the nearby school. The Palestinians were able to shelter on the
first floor of a nearby building.

All the HRWs have bruises from kicks, punches, and stones. The HRWs have reported the incident to
the police.

Report by Mary, ISM
Soldiers who often use the roof of a Palestinian home on Tel Rumeida Street for surveillance recently
hung an Israeli flag from his roof.

The soldiers also went into the kitchen of his house, knocked everything off the bench and attached the
bottom of the flag to his kitchen window. They also abused his niece who was studying in the house and
damaged the desk she was using.

I approached a soldier outside the doctor's house and said the flag should not be there. Baruch Marzel
and two other settlers came past and spoke to the soldier. They called me Nazi, etc. They yelled at me
and one came up really close, threatening but doing nothing. I told the soldier he should be intervening,
but he refused.

I had a call from a man from Al Jazeera wanting to talk to Anna about the attack. He was with a man from
Reuters and they were held up at the checkpoint. I went there with Anna this morning. On the way, a
young Palestinian man said "You are needed at the checkpoint"! Border police were detaining all the
men and checking their ID cards.

I had thought that my being there made a difference and the newsman confirmed this. They could
understand what the border police said to each other when I arrived. Nobody was held more than 15
minutes after I get there, while it may be an hour otherwise.

Anna came back with the newsmen and I stayed at the checkpoint for nearly 2 1/2 hours until the border
police left.

4/22/06 SATURDAY
Tension had been building in Tel Rumeda all afternoon. Settler children spat at, and verbally abused
human rights workers in the mid afternoon. A group of seven teenagers then threatened the same workers, and were overheard complaining that they were "not enough," to make a successful attack.
The teenagers, who were unaware some of the HRWs spoke Hebrew, said they would meet at the home
of Baruch Marzel to make a plan.

At approximately 3:45pm, a gang of 30 settlers marched through Shuhada Street near the illegal
settlement of Beit Hadassa. They then turned left just before the Army checkpoint and marched up the
hill where they attempted to attack some human rights workers who had become concerned for local
Palestinians' safety. The HRWs were backed up against a wall and only saved by the intervention of a
squad of Israeli soldiers who happened to be patrolling at the time. The gang continued up the hill,
where the attack on the shop began.

The settlers flung sharpened metal bars as "spears" through the open doorway smashing produce jars
and knocking goods from the shelves. They also threw stones, punched and kicked a group of
Palestinian children playing just outside, and assaulted the 16-year-old owner's son.

Internationals were also attacked when they stood between the shop-front and the gang. The settlers
only stopped when confronted by soldiers from the Israeli Army. The gang, composed of teenagers and
older boys all in Orthodox Jewish dress of white shirts, black pants, and skull-caps and led by an adult
man, then moved off into a near-by Palestinian olive grove, where several Palestinian families live.

4/24/06 MONDAY
An international and a Palestinian are spat at and threatened by settler children on Shuhada Street.

4/25/06 TUESDAY
On Tuesday the morning school run goes well. Three settler visitors wearing the orange threads
signifying opposition to disengagement come to talk to the soldiers.

As we are leaving a soldier comes to check our passports, he grabs our passports out of our hands and
tells us we are being detained. We try to reason with him but he is obviously intent on causing us as
much trouble as he can.
In the end five internationals from CPT and ISM are detained for three hours at the checkpoint.
After three hours the shift changes and we are released immediately - it is patently obvious that this
particular soldier does not like the internationals and wants to cause as much trouble as he can, his
peers do not seem to share his animosity.

The soldiers stationed near the Tel Rumeida settlement stop three schoolgirls from walking home. The
family that these girls belong to has won a court battle for access to the land below the Tel Rumeida
settlement. However, today the soldiers are not aware that the family have permission to use the path to
their home and they have to wait by the guard post dangerously close to the settlement buildings. A
settler child emerges and throws a stone before he is shooed away by the soldier. This exact same
situation occurred last week and could be avoided if IDF soldiers were properly briefed.

4/26/06 WEDNESDAY
This evening settlers from Beit Hadassah settlement in Tel Rumeida on the outskirts of the old city of
Hebron destroyed a school path at Qurtuba school which is used by local Palestinian children.

The path was built with money from TIPH (Temporary International Presence in Hebron). The builders
had just laid bricks along the path located across the street from Beit Hadassa settlement.

At 2pm yesterday builders had stones thrown at them by children from Beit Hadassah. Shortly afterwards international Human Rights Workers (HRWs) saw an adult settler looking at the building work and making several calls on his mobile phone. Between 6 and 7pm yesterday a group of 20 adults and children from Beit Hadassah climbed the steps to the school and began tearing up the bricks and throwing them down the steps.

Soldiers are stationed at a guardpost 50 feet away. Local Palestinians said soldiers did try to intervene
but did not stop the vandalism. Police attended but no arrests were made.

A Palestinian family living behind Qurtuba school said that when the settlers approached the school they
were frightened that they would attack them and they called their children inside the house. Palestinian
families in Tel Rumeida are subject to regular attacks by extremist settlers, especially at Qurtuba school.