Israeli settlers today smashed the doors of and ransacked the contents of a number of stores in the Old City of Hebron, according to local sources.
They said that the settlers barged their way into Bab al-Khan area, west of the Ibrahimi Mosque, removed the doors of a number of Palestinian stores using pickaxes and crow bars, broke inside and ransacked the contents.
The stores, which have been closed by the occupation authorities for 23 years and ever since been inaccessible to their Palestinian owners, belong to the Tamimi family and other families living in the Old City.
The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops.
Israel has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency