Israeli forces seal off several Hebron neighborhoods

HEBRON: Israeli occupation forces Tuesday evening sealed off several neighborhoods of the Old City of Hebron, according to a local activist. Aref Jaber said that the occupation forces deployed patrols and set up checkpoints in the Jaber, as-Salaymeh and Wadi al-Hassin neighborhoods, close to the Ibrahimi Mosque, declaring them closed military zones and banning the movement of Palestinians. Twenty two years ago, Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein broke into the Ibrahimi Mosque and opened fire at Palestinian Muslim worshippers, killing 29. Four Palestinians were killed on the same day in the clashes that broke out around the Mosque in response to the massacre. In the aftermath, the mosque, known to Jews as Tomb of the Patriarchs, was divided in two, with the larger part turned into a synagogue while heavy scrutiny was imposed on the Palestinians and areas closed completely to them, including an important market and the main street, Shuhada Street. The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinians and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli colonists who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops. Israel has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron's Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded colonists, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA