Israeli soldiers beat elderly Palestinian trying to reach his West Bank home

By Awad Rjoob and Tarek Chouiref

RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL (AA) - An elderly Palestinian man was hospitalized after Israeli soldiers assaulted him as he tried to reach his home in an area of Hebron forcibly emptied of residents since Friday.

Footage circulating online shows Hijazi Shawar al-Tamimi, an elder of the Tamimi family, leaning on a walking stick and speaking to soldiers before one pushes him and kicks him repeatedly.

Tamimi said several soldiers beat him, including on the head, although the footage captures only one soldier assaulting him.

He said troops stopped him roughly 100 meters from his home, which he had been forced to leave, and refused to let him proceed.

Tamimi told them he has diabetes, had nine stents and needed his medication. The soldiers continued to deny him access without saying when he could return, he said.

When he asked to see the order barring his return so he could challenge it in Israel’s Supreme Court, the soldiers began assaulting him, according to his account.

He said two soldiers struck his chest, leg and head, verbally abused him and forced him to turn back. He was later taken to a hospital with injuries and bruising.

The assault came amid an Israeli military operation that has involved forced displacement, demolitions and the seizure of Palestinian homes for use as military posts.

Defense Minister Israel Katz acknowledged Saturday that Israeli forces had forced around 2,000 Palestinians from their homes in Hebron.

Israeli forces imposed a siege on Hebron on Friday after two Palestinians attacked an Israeli checkpoint, killing two soldiers and wounding three others. Israeli forces subsequently killed both attackers, according to Israeli figures.

The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has seen escalating Israeli military attacks and violence by Israeli occupiers since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

The attacks have included killing and detaining Palestinians, demolishing homes and other structures, burning mosques and vehicles, bulldozing farmland, preventing farmers from accessing their fields, and displacing Palestinian communities, alongside illegal settlement expansion.