Israel locks down flashpoint Hebron after deadly attacks

On Friday, Netanyahu rejected a report by the Middle East Quartet – which is mediating the so-called peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – that directly called on the Tel Aviv regime to put an end to its settlement expansion activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Locals said the main entrance to Beit Ummar was closed with an iron gate.

The Israeli military says it struck several militant sites in Gaza early Saturday in response to a Palestinian rocket attack that hit a kindergarten in the Israeli border town of Sderot.

The spokesperson said more than a hundred Palestinians “were rioting” in Dura when Israeli forces first responded with warning shots and riot dispersal means, including rubber-coated steel bullets. The spokesperson could not provide details on the expected duration of the blockade. The previous day a Palestinian teen stabbed a 13-year-old Israeli-American girl to death as she slept in her bedroom in a West Bank settlement.

Over the past nine months Palestinians have carried out dozens of stabbings, shootings and attacks using cars against civilians and security forces, killing 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at almost five decades of Israeli rule in territory they claim for a state.

Friday’s shooting followed an incident inside Hebron at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where a Palestinian woman was shot dead after attempting to stab an Israeli police officer. His hometown in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem has also been placed under blockade.

Others were killed in clashes with security forces or by Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1967.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s office on Friday also ordered that the money being transferred by the Palestinian Authority to “terrorists and their families” be deducted immediately from monthly tax revenues – a total of $130 million, referring to money paid by the PA to former Palestinian prisoners, families of prisoners in Israeli custody, and families of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Friday approved the construction of 42 new housing units in Kiyrat Arba.

An army spokesman said the closure was “intended to break the chain of lethal attacks”.

Near the entrance to Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron, protesters blocked Route 60, the major north-south artery in the West Bank, and prevented Palestinians from driving through. A closure on Hebron was also imposed.

The three dailies said Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian houses in a large-scale overnight raid into Qalandiya refugee camp.

Israel’s response to attacks – such as punitive home demolitions, sealing entire villages, mass detention campaigns, and withholding the bodies of Palestinians slain while committing attacks – have been condemned by rights groups, who have said the measures amount to “collective punishment” and represent a clear violation of global law.

The UN, which is a member of the Quartet, said in a statement: “Following the release of the report, the UN Secretary-General encouraged the parties to engage with the Quartet to implement the findings “to rebuild hope among Palestinians and Israelis in a political solution and to create the conditions to return to meaningful negotiations”.