Hebron siege enters tenth day with homes demolished and businesses closed

Israeli forces have maintained a siege on the West Bank city of Hebron for a tenth consecutive day, demolishing homes and shutting hundreds of businesses.

The lockdown was imposed after an attack on 23 October near Hebron that killed two Israeli soldiers. Since then, the local municipality reports that more than 3,300 Palestinians have been displaced or otherwise affected.

Mayor Yousef al‑Jabari told Al Jazeera that daily economic losses exceed 12 million shekels (about €3.8 million), including over €1.9 million in infrastructure damage and roughly €160 000 in health and environmental losses. Israeli forces have razed 15 homes and forced 327 businesses to close.

About 80 000 students have missed school for ten days, and the mayor described the siege as “collective punishment”, noting that Hebron contributes roughly 40 percent of the Palestinian economy.

Arrests of Palestinians continued on Sunday, with ten teachers detained in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and a United Nations‑run school in the Shufat refugee camp raided. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Israeli settlers carried out 397 attacks across the occupied West Bank in October, the highest monthly total since monitoring began in 2006.

Since 2015, Israeli authorities have issued 9 518 demolition or stop‑work notices on Palestinian property in the occupied West Bank, with 344 notices issued in the first nine months of this year, according to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission.

Source: Al Jazeera. Photo: Regan Dsouza / Pexels.