Palestinians abused, humiliated by Israeli soldiers for ‘vendetta’: Rights group

Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron are victims of brutal Israeli violence inflicted on them as they go about their daily affairs, an Israeli rights group said on Tuesday.

In a report, B'Tselem gathered testimonies of Palestinian residents, who were attacked by Israeli soldiers in the city in the period between May and August this year.

The victims were detained while going about their daily affairs and faced acts of violence, abuse and humiliation by soldiers aimed at men, women, teenagers, and children.

In many cases, the soldiers recorded the abuse and bragged about it openly, to further the humiliation of Palestinians or receive praise from their fellow soldiers and social circles.

In one case, an Israeli soldier pointed his finger at Hisham Abu Is'ifan, 54, a father of six, as he was on his way to work in central Hebron.

The Palestinian man tried to explain to the soldier that he was going to work at the Education Ministry, but the soldier kept yelling at him.

"He came over and pushed me, and then he ordered me to hand over my ID card and phone. Before I could give him the phone, he grabbed me by the back of the neck and shoved me to the ground," he recalled.

"My back hurt a lot and I shouted. […] When I kept shouting in pain, the soldier sat on me and pressed both his knees hard into my chest, until felt I couldn't breathe from the pain."

Muhammad 'Aref Jaber, 21, was also attacked by Israeli soldiers as he was hanging out with his friends in the city.

"We were seven guys there. We were chatting and drinking coffee to pass the time, because once the curfew is on, we can't leave the neighborhood or do anything else," he recalled.

As they were chatting, an Israeli soldier appeared in the area and pointed his gun at them.

"Then he ordered my friend Muhammad Abu Ramileh and me to get up and go over to him. We both got up immediately and walked over to him, and he ordered us to hold hands and walk ahead of him. He took us to the military observation point next to the Jaber checkpoint, walking behind us and pointing his gun at us the whole way".

- RAPE

Muhammad Natsheh, 22, was one of the victims, who was threatened with rape by Israeli soldiers.

"The soldiers cursed me with humiliating swear words, and some of them stepped on my legs. It hurt a lot and I couldn't say anything," he said.

"One of them got an office chair and put it on my legs. He sat on it from time to time, which hurt a lot. They kept swearing at me the whole time, and one of them spat at me, too. It went on like that for about an hour, and then one of the soldiers said to me in Arabic: 'We'll rape you.'

"One of them grabbed my head, and another soldier tried to open my mouth and shove a rubber object in it. I made a huge effort not to open my mouth. I heard him say in Hebrew: 'Film him, film him'."

Then, an Israeli soldier who speaks Arabic came in and ordered the victim to get up.

"He grabbed me by the neck, lifted me up and made me stand facing the wall, and then he started pushing my head left and right violently with his hands, saying: 'If I see you in this place again, I'll rape you and kill you. I'll do the same to anyone else I see here'."

- VENDETTA

B'Tselem said the scope of violence and abuse against Palestinians can't be explained only "as a personal vendetta by soldiers or a flaw in the system."

"It shows that this violence is the outcome of a systematic, longstanding policy of oppression, expulsion and dispossession that is at the very core of the Israeli apartheid regime," it said.

"This reality leaves Palestinians with two options: uproot themselves from their homes, land and communities, or live in constant fear of violence."

Tension has escalated across the occupied West Bank over Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 44,400 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 105,000 others.

Nearly 800 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,450 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.