Israeli settlers attacked with stones four Palestinian children who were returning home from school with their mother

(segue versione in italiano)

April 24, 2014

At Tuwani – On Thursday April 24 at around 12 pm, two Israeli settlers coming with a quad-bike from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on attacked with stones four Palestinian children and the mother of three of them, as they were returning from school to their homes in the villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed. A seven year old girl child was hit by a stone and fell while attempting to run away, badly injuring her head.

Her father, who witnessed the attack as he was harvesting his land situated on top of the Old Havat Ma’on hill, immediately brought her to the nearby village of At Tuwani, where an ambulance came to rescue her and bring her to the hospital.

The girl required five stitches and is now resting at home with her family.

The five Palestinians were coming from the village of At Tuwani, where the children attend school, through the only path they can use without the military escort that everyday accompanies the children from Tuba and Maghayir Al Abeed on their way to and from school since 2004. On this path Palestinians cross the hill where the outpost of Havat Ma’on was situated before it was dismantled in 2000 and moved to Hill 833. Through this hill passes a paved road used by Israeli settlers as a hiking trail. The five Palestinians were attacked by two Israeli settlers who were riding with their quad-bike on this trail.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

The seven years old Palestinian girl injured by the attack

The Palestinian ambulance that brought the child and her father to the Hospital

COMUNICATO STAMPA

Bambina palestinese ferita gravemente da un attacco di coloni israeliani

Coloni israeliani hanno attaccato con pietre quattro bambini palestinesi che stavano facendo ritorno da scuola con la madre

14 aprile 2014

At Tuwani – Giovedì 24 aprile alle ore 12 circa, due coloni israeliani a bordo di un quad, proveniente dall’avamposto illegale di Havat Ma’on, hanno attaccato con delle pietre quattro bambini palestinesi e la madre di tre di loro mentre, dopo la scuola, stavano facendo ritorno ai villaggi di Maghayir Al Abeed e Tuba. Una bambina di sette anni è stata colpita da una pietra mentre cercava di fuggire e, cadendo, si è procurata una profonda ferita alla testa.

Il padre di questa, testimone dell’accaduto mentre stava lavorando la propria terra situata in cima alla collina di Old Havat Ma’on, ha portato la piccola al vicino villaggio di At Tuwani dove è arrivata un’ambulanza che le ha prestato i primi soccorsi e l’ha trasferita poi all’ospedale.

Alla bambina sono stati applicati cinque punti di sutura ed ora si trova a casa con la propria famiglia.

I cinque palestinesi arrivavano dal villaggio di At Tuwani, dove i bambini frequentano la scuola, attraverso l’unico sentiero che possono percorrere senza la presenza della scorta militare che, ogni giorno dal 2004, accompagna sulla via per e dalla scuola i bambini di Tuba e Maghayir Al Abeed. Questa via attraversa l’area in cui era ubicato l’avamposto di Havat Ma’on prima di essere smantellato nel 2000 e ricostruito sulla Hill 833. Su questa collina passa una strada sterrata usata dai coloni israeliani come percorso di trekking. I cinque palestinesi sono stati attaccati da due coloni israeliani che stavano percorrendo questo sentiero con un quad.

Operazione Colomba mantiene una presenza costante nel villaggio di At Tuwani e nell’area delle colline a sud di Hebron dal 2004.

Per informazioni:
Operazione Colomba, +972 54 99 25 773

[Note: secondo la IV Convenzione di Ginevra, la II Convenzione dell’Aja, la Corte Internazionale di Giustizia e numerose risoluzioni ONU, tutti gli insediamenti israeliani nei Territori Palestinesi Occupati sono illegali. Gli avamposti sono considerati illegali anche secondo la legge israeliana.]

Settlers from Israeli illegal outposts damaged Palestinian’s solar panels and cultivated lands

March 28, 2014

At Tuwani – In the evening of March 26, Israeli settlers damaged some solar panels, only electricity power sources for the Palestinian village Bir Al Idd. The same day, during the early afternoon, Israeli settlers grazed their flock on Palestinian-owned wheat fields, damaging the harvest.

At 2.18 pm International volunteers noticed a flock grazing on Palestinian-owned fields in  Kharrouba valley, close to the south-west side of the Israeli illegal outpost Havat Ma’on, in the South Hebron hills. The flock was apparently unattended, until when, after ten minutes, an Israeli settler from the outpost got close the herd and walked away with it. Later, the Palestinian owners reported the facts to the Israeli police. At 3.02 pm the police arrived at the place and questioned Palestinians and International volunteers, taking from them pictures of the Israeli settler while he was grazing the flock. After that, the police officers went inside the outpost.

Around 6 pm, Israeli settlers damaged photovoltaic system that supplies power to the Palestinian village of Bir Al Idd (South Hebron hills area), hitting it repeatedly. Near the village are located the Israeli illegal outposts of Mitzpe Yair and Nof Nesher. The morning after, Comet-Me members, who placed the system during the 2010 (Comet-Me is an Israeli-Palestinian no-profit organization specialized in providing sustainable energy sources and drinking water systems to isolated communities) arrived on the place in order to verify the damages. At 9:59 am an Israeli policeman and a soldier reached them in order to carry out surveys and listen the testimony of a Palestinian. Later, the complaint of the Palestinian was formalized.

During the late 90s , the Palestinian families of Bir Al Idd were forced to leave the area because of the continuos violence of Israeli settlers. After a Rabbis for Human Rights’ appeal submitted to the Israeli High Court of Justice, on January 2009 the Bir Al Idd residents’ return was allowed.
Now only one household of the 50 residents lives permanently in the village; the others were forced to leave because of several violences that took place since April 2013. In April, August and November 2013, Israeli settlers from Mitzpe Yair attempted to block the only access road to the village. On January 2014, two Israeli settlers prevented Palestinian residents from reaching the village, threatening them.

On March 22 Israeli police arrested Zaaid Salame Mehamre, a shepherd from the Palestinian village of Maghayr Al-Abeed, while he was grazing his sheep on Jabel Doff (the location where the Havat Ma’on outpost used to stand before the year 2000, when it was moved to Hill 833). The arrest was carried out under the accusation of “trespassing”, although no official documents on the ownership of the land were presented.

In the morning, Mehamre was grazing his sheep in the Palestinian valleys and hills surrounding the Israeli illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. At 1:30 p.m., Mehamre moved to the top of the hill to follow his flock, and was followed by a police car, which later drove past him. 15 minutes later an Israeli policeman declared Mehamre under arrest and escorted him to an area where there was another police car, a District Coordination Office car and three army jeeps, together with four Israeli settlers.

Ta’ayush activists, who were already present in the area accompanying other shepherds, immediately arrived and tried to understand the situation. The activists asked the Israeli officers for clarification on the ownership of the land, which they had declared Israeli, however no maps or official documents were presented.

At 2:20 p.m. Israeli soldiers violently chased away Mehamre’s flock, which remained unattended. The soldiers pushed the flock toward the valley south of the hill.

At 2:30 p.m., Mehamre was taken by police to the Kyriat Arba police station. He was released in the later afternoon after a bail of 500 shekels was paid by Ta’ayush and the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee.

Pastore palestinese arrestato dalla polizia israeliana nelle colline a sud di Hebron

Il 22 marzo la polizia israeliana ha arrestato Zaaid Salame Mehamre, un pastore proveniente dal villaggio di Maghayr Al-Abeed, mentre stava pascolando il suo gregge su Jabel Doff (la collina su cui sorgeva l’avamposto di Havat Ma’on prima del 2000, quando è stato spostato sulla Hill 833). L’accusa era quella di “sconfinamento”, anche se non è stato esibito nessun documento ufficiale riguardo l’appartenenza di quel terreno.

La mattina Mehamre stava pascolando il suo gregge nelle valli e sulle colline palestinesi che circondano l’avamposto illegale israeliano di Havat Ma’on. Alle 13:30, Mehamre si è spostato sulla cima della collina per seguire il suo gregge ed è stato inseguito da una macchina della polizia, che lo ha poi preceduto. 15 minuti dopo un poliziotto israeliano ha dichiarato Mehamre in stato di arresto e lo ha portato poco più in là sulla collina, dove c’erano già un’altra macchina della polizia, una macchina dell’Ufficio di Coordinamento Distrettuale e tre camionette dell’esercito, insieme a quattro coloni israeliani.

Attivisti Ta’ayush (un movimento nonviolento di base arabo e israeliano), che erano già presenti nell’area per accompaganare altri pastori, sono immediatamente giunti sul posto e hanno provato a comprendere meglio la situazione. Gli attivisti hanno chiesto agli ufficiali israeliani chiarificazioni riguardo all’appartenenza della terra, che questi avevano dichiarato israeliana, ma non gli è stata mostrata alcuna mappa o documento ufficiale.

Alle 14:30 soldati israeliani hanno cacciato il gregge di Mehamra, che era rimasto incustodito. I soldati hanno spinto le pecore verso la valle a sud della collina.

Alle 14:30, Mehamre è stato portato alla stazione di polizia di Kyriat Arba. E’ stato poi rilasciato nel tardo pomeriggio dietro pagamento di una cauzione di 500 shekel, pagata dai Ta’ayush e dal Comitato Popolare delle Colline a sud di Hebron.

(Segue versione in italiano)

March 21, 2014

At Tuwani – On March 20, four settlers from Havat Ma’on illegal outpost attacked, in two different places at the same time, two internationals and seven Palestinian shepherds while grazing flocks on their own land. The settlers were armed with a gun and slingshots.

At 9.58 am a settler with a gun chased two Palestinian shepherds away, while grazing between the Palestinian village of Tuba and Havat Ma’on Israeli illegal outpost. He first shouted at the shepherds and then ran after them for more than two kilometers. The harassment  lasted for about one hour, when the shepherds finally arrived to Tuba.

In the meanwhile, at 10.03 am three settler teens fired a petard from the outpost in order to scare the Palestinians who were in Meshaha valley. About 15 minutes later the Israeli Police arrived to the place and spoke to the settlers and the Palestinian shepherds. The police allowed the latter to graze in Meshaha valley, south side of the outpost.

At 10.40 am a masked settler and two children went to the same valley and attacked five Palestinian shepherds, three men and two women. By using slingshots, the attackers threw stones against the shepherds and the internationals, for about five minutes. During the assault the settlers entered Palestinian private land. At a later stage the Israeli police arrived to the place and the attackers ran away. The policeman saw them going back to the outpost but did not try to stop them. One of the Palestinians attacked told the police the event adding that a settler with a gun was still chasing away a Palestinian shepherd from Tuba, on the other side of the outpost. The Israeli police moved to the village of Tuba together with the Palestinian and an international volunteer, while the rest of the Palestinian shepherds successfully grazed their flocks in Meshaha valley until around 12.20 am.

At 11.30 am the police car arrived to Tuba and after five minutes the policeman reached the settler who chased the Palestinian shepherds away. The settler was still close to the Palestinian village. The policeman inquired one of the Palestinians, Ahmed Jundiya, and the settler. After that both of them got in the police car and were driven to Kiryat Arba police station. The two filed a complaint against each other: the settler maintained that the shepherds were on Israeli land and Jundiya proved, thanks to his camera provided by B’tselem organization for human rights, that he was chased away while grazing his flock on Palestinian land.

The Israeli police decided to investigate more in order to define within three months whom that land belongs to. Jundiya could come back home at about 4.30 pm.

Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills face the Israeli occupation with the popular nonviolent resistance.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://www.operazionecolomba.it/galleries/palestina-israele/2014/2014-03-20-settlers-from-havat-ma-on-attacked-palestinian-shepherds-in-two-different-places-at-the-same-time-in-the-south-hebron-hills/

For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law].

March 17, 2014

At-Tuwani – On Sunday March 16, during the Jewish holiday of Purim, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and Internationals on Palestinian fields near Mitzpe Yair illegal outpost.

In the morning, four Palestinian shepherds from the village of Qawawis were grazing their flocks south of the Israeli outpost of Mitzpe Yair, when a settler arrived armed with an iron pipe to threaten them shouting. At 9:18 am two Internationals arrived together with two further Palestinian shepherds. The armed Israeli settler then left when he saw that they were filming the scene.

At 9:28 am eight settlers arrived from the illegal outpost – one was still armed with the iron pipe – and four of them violently chased away the flocks, pushing them toward the valley underlying the outpost. Palestinian shepherds followed the settlers in order not to lose their flocks accompanied by Internationals. The Palestinians immediately called the Israeli police.

At 9:48 am the settlers came back to the outpost. In the meantime, an additional Internationals and two Palestinian members of the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee arrived at the scene. At 10:00 am one of the settlers tried to chase away one of the newly-arrived Palestinians, a member of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem. As this happened, an Israeli policeman and three Israeli soldiers arrived by foot. At 10:20 am, as the policeman began interrogating the attendants, a further three settlers arrived. Those interrogated were the Palestinian shepherd Nail Abuaram (who filmed everything with a B’Tselem camera) and one International.

At 10:45 am, the policeman lead Abuaram and one of the Internationals to Kiryat Arba police station to give testimony of the harassments. They arrived at the station at noon.

The International was asked for the camera footage of the incident, interrogated and finally released at around 2:50 pm. Abuaram was interrogated alone for a couple of hours and was threaten of arrest until he accepted to sign a paper stating that he will not get closer than 450 meters to the area where the harassment took place for a period of 15 days. He was later released around 6:00 pm after signing the paper. The Israeli police forced the settler who attacked the Palestinians with an iron pipe to stay 200 meters far from the spot where the harassment took place for a period of 15 days.

Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are strongly involved in using nonviolence as a way to resist the Israeli occupation.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Video of the incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkhd_oJ2jkk&list=UUpKXxYTHG80BLPckf_YMHtw

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

February 12, 2014

At Tuwani – Yesterday in the afternoon Palestinians discovered about eighty olive trees uprooted alongside bypass road 317 near the Susiya junction in the South Hebron Hills.

The olive tree grove belongs to the Hushiya family from the nearby town of Yatta and had been planted only three weeks ago. Yesterday afternoon the owners and B’tselem staff members gathered near the destroyed trees, waiting for the police. The Israeli police and District Coordination Office arrived on the scene and documented the incident. Today Operation Dove volunteers and B’tselem staff went there to take more pictures.

This field is part of the area that settlers from the nearby settlement of Suseya illegally occupied during 2007, planting a vineyard. Immediately the Palestinians with the help of Rabbis for Human Rights filed a complain and started a legal process concerning this land (for more details click here). In 2013 the Israeli High Court ordered the army to dismantle theese crops and the order was implemented by force.

The number of Palestinian-owned trees uprooted and damaged in the South Hebron Hills area since the beginning of 2014 now rises to 100. Olive trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community, and their damage causes serious economic loss.

Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly involved in using nonviolence as a way to resist to the Israeli occupation. Just two days ago twenty-five Palestinians planted sixty new olive trees on their own land close to Avigayil illegal outpost (for more details click here).

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: click here

For further information:
Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Schoolchildren on the long way to Tuba
I bambini sulla strada lunga per Tuba

On February 6, the Israeli military escort failed to accompany Palestinian school children in the South Hebron Hills on the gravel road from At Tuwani to the village of Tuba. The children arrived at the designated escort meeting place at 11.59 am, but the army wasn’t there. The children waited in the winter morning for the army until 1.07 pm, and when the soldiers failed to appear volunteers from Operation Dove accompanied the children via a longer path.  However, when the group arrived near the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on two settlers went out from the outpost and one of them arrived about 50 meters close it. The children ran because were frightened of the settlers and felt very unsafe, and OD volunteers accompanied them until Tuba.

The children arrived in Tuba at 1.45 pm instead of 12.50 am, if the military escort had arrived on time.

Since the beginning of the school year, the children were forced to walk via the long way without a military escort 12 times.

For further information on the military escort and how it was carried out in the past years, the report “The Dangerous Road to Education . Palestinian Students Suffer Under settler Violence and Military Negligence” is available at: http://goo.gl/CXfi9

—

Lunedì 6 febbraio la scorta militare dell’esercito israeliano non ha accompagnato gli studenti di Tuba che frequentano la scuola di At Tuwani, sulla via del ritorno verso casa. I bambini sono arrivati nel luogo concordato alle 11.59 ma i soldati non si sono presentati. I bambini hanno aspettato i militari fino alle 13.07 ma la scorta non si è presentata. Data la situazione, gli studenti hanno deciso di intraprendere una strada più lunga, accompagnati dai volontari di Operazione Colomba. Tuttavia, quando il gruppo è arrivato nei pressi dell’estremità meridionale di Havat Ma’on due coloni sono usciti dall’avamposto e uno di essi è arrivato a circa cinquanta metri dai bambini. Questi ultimi si sono messi a correre spaventati. I volontari di Operazione Colomba li hanno accompagnati fino a Tuba.

Gli studenti sono arrivati a Tuba alle 13.45, ma se la scorta militare si fosse presentata in orario i bambini avrebbero potuto essere a casa alle 12.50.

Dall’inizio dell’anno scolastico i bambini hanno percorso una via molto più lunga e senza scorta militare per ben 12 volte.

Per ulteriori informazioni sulla suddetta scorta e sul suo andamento negli anni passati è disponibile il rapporto “The Dangerous Road to Education. Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence and Military Negligence” all’indirizzo: http://goo.gl/CXfi9

The settler who chased the schoolchildren
Il colono incappucciato che ha inseguito i bambini

Israel should drop its reluctance to enforce the law against ‘price tag’ attackers.

By Ziad J. Asali, Dec. 15, Haaretz

Violent assaults, desecrating mosques and churches, uprooting trees, destroying cars, and damaging property – these are all examples of “price tag” attacks carried out by extremist Israeli hooligans against Palestinians, mainly in the occupied territories. In a few cases this violence has even been perpetrated against Israeli security personnel. Unfortunately, and consistently, the thugs responsible often enjoy de facto impunity for their crimes.

At Tuwani, 4 November 2013

Yesterday morning Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills village of Bir al Idd found the sole access road to their village closed by a road block composed of two big stones. These stones were placed precisely in front of the nearby illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair.

When at around 8:30 AM several Palestinian, Israeli and international activists arrived on the scene, they saw the road block (most likely made by the settlers) and a settler shepherd grazing his sheep on the field adjacent to this path.

The activists immediately informed the Israeli army so the road block would be removed. Five minutes later Israeli soldiers arrived at the area to monitor the situation, but they didn’t remove the roadblock.

The activists then called the Israeli police and waited for about 40 minutes, but the police failed to arrive. The road block was then removed by the Israeli army at around 1.00 pm.

This is not the first time this kind of harassment occurs on this road. On August 18, settlers from Mitzpe Yair built there twice in one day a road block, which prevented access to the village for over six hours (see more: http://snipurl.com/27ystqj).

Activist’s footage shows settlement security coordinator telling soldiers to make arrests.

By Amira Hass, October 27 2013 – Video by Operation Dove

VIDEO: http://bcove.me/kbzpg6me

The Israeli army will launch an internal investigation into two cases in which soldiers allegedly arrested Palestinian shepherds on false pretexts, the IDF Spokesman’s Office has told Haaretz.

The investigation, under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, will be studying allegations that troops from the Kfir Brigade arrested Palestinian shepherds near the village of A-Tuwani in the southern Hebron Hills, taking them away from their flocks and pastureland for hours.

In the first incident, as shown in a video taken by an international activist who was at the scene, the soldiers arrested a shepherd on the direct order of an Israeli man named Gedalia, who is the security coordinator of the settlement of Maon. In the second incident, a commanding officer claimed the grazing was forbidden because it was too close to the outpost of Mitzpeh Avigayil. The shepherd testified that the soldiers struck and abused him.

In the A-Tuwani region, international and Israeli activists escort the local farmers and shepherds to their fields because of constant attacks by the residents of the outposts and settlements. The army and police often send the farmers and shepherds away to prevent friction with the settlers. But this was the first time in local memory that shepherds were kept from their pastureland by arrests made on the orders of settlers.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 15, Maon security coordinator Gedalia arrived at Ghali Hill, where Mohammed Shawahin, 31, of the nearby village of Jawiya, was grazing his flocks. Shortly after Gedalia appeared, a military vehicle containing four soldiers, three men and a woman, arrived. Shawahin got the message and tried to leave. But the woman soldier shouted at him: “You’re not going anywhere. Don’t you hear me? I’ve got a gun. You stay here. Don’t you hear me? You stay here. I don’t care. You stay here. Right here.”

It was then the sheep began dispersing. The security coordinator told the soldiers, “He [the shepherd] isn’t carrying an identity card.” In the video documentation, the sergeant can be heard asking, in Hebrew, “What do you want us to do?” The security coordinator said, “He was here yesterday, too — the exact same thing. I want you to hold him, find out who this person is, find out who this terrorist is.”

Shawahin offered to return to his home, a few hundred meters away, and come back with his identity card. The international activist tried to tell the soldiers that two days before, different soldiers had appeared and confirmed that grazing in the area was permitted. But the commanding officer decided to arrest Shawahin anyway, and handcuffed him. Shawahin was taken by jeep to an army camp in the settlement of Sussia. Ninety minutes later he was taken to the settlement of Shim’a, about 17 kilometers southwest of where he was arrested. He returned home on foot about seven hours after he was arrested.

On the morning of October 16, the same jeep appeared, only with different soldiers this time, on the road near the wadi and the privately-owned land on which Nael Abu Aram, 26, of the village of Qawawis, was grazing his flock. Two teenage boys were with him. Abu Aram testified that one of the soldiers took the pipe one of the teenagers was carrying and began striking the sheep to disperse the flock. The soldiers insisted that Abu Aram answer them in Hebrew and refused to believe him when he said he did not speak Hebrew. For several seconds, he managed to film the commander of the troops (Duchifat Battalion soldiers who completed their training in March 2013) telling him: “You’re not allowed to be here, right? You’re not allowed to be here, because this is [the unauthorized outpost of] Mitzpeh Avigayil. You’re not allowed to be here. There’s a Jewish community here, and you’re not allowed near it.”

Abu Aram said that when he tried to use his cellphone to call for help, the commander held his hand strongly, twisting his fingers. “He almost broke them,” he said. The soldiers handcuffed him, blindfolded him and made him get into the jeep. He says he was held for two or three hours at the army base in Sussia, in one of the prefabricated buildings (which he managed to see when his blindfold was removed for a few minutes). There, he testified in a video recorded by activists of the Ta’ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership, the soldiers struck, abused and cursed him while he was still handcuffed and blindfolded. He said they struck him on the chest, back and legs, held a burning cigarette to his mouth and extinguished it on his face, near his mouth. Later on, he was taken to the area near Shim’a, about 15 kilometers from the place where he had been arrested. He returned home about six hours after his arrest. On the afternoon of the same day, the same commanding officer from the Duchifat Battalion tried to arrest another shepherd in the same area on the same pretext — being too close to the settlement — but the shepherd firmly refused to get into the jeep. Because several international activists were present, together with a Ta’ayush activist, the commanding officer backed down.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office responded: “Each of these two incidents will be investigated thoroughly by the relevant parties, including the military advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, to clarify the circumstances. We emphasize that IDF troops act on the orders of their commanding officers in the field and are not subject to the orders of security coordinators.”