Palestinians in Hebron city in the West Bank, Palestine, live under “a climate of intimidation and coercion” that has only become worse since October 7, 2023: restrictions on their movements, forced evictions, and demolition of homes are routine, Doctors without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières – MSF) stated in a piece published on the organization’s website on January 4 after interviews of a number of its patients, whose full names have not been released.
MSF interviewed a Hebron resident identified only as Alma, whose apartment Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed just days before. She told MSF, “Israeli soldiers search our houses day and night, and vandalize and arrest people without any warning . . . . There’s no mercy. People in my community are deeply affected and live in constant fear.”
Escalating Israeli violence has not been limited to the Gaza Strip since October 7, as MSF documents in the article. The United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that as of January 2, at least 198 Palestinian households in the West Bank, home to 1,208 people, including 586 children, have been displaced due to settler violence and access restrictions since October 7.
The provision of health care has also been disrupted, according to Simona Onidi, MSF project coordinator in Hebron. “People’s access to basic services, including shops and health care, has been heavily restricted,” she said.
“Due to the severe movement restrictions and risk of violence for both patients and medical staff, we observed a 78 percent reduction in medical consultations performed by our team in October 2023, compared to the previous month.”
Hebron, located in the Israeli-controlled area called H2, usually has 21 checkpoints, but after the war started in early October, Israel imposed more strict movement restrictions, limiting the opening of checkpoints to two hours each day – one hour in the morning and one in the afternoon — for only a few days per week. Palestinians have been forbidden from leaving their homes for days at a time and have been prohibited from even taking out their trash or opening their windows to get some fresh air.
“This morning, the soldiers [at the checkpoint] asked me to pass through the X-ray machine three times,” Aliyah, a pregnant Palestinian woman, told the MSF. “I asked not to go through for the safety of my baby, but they wouldn’t listen.”
Another woman, Salma, said H2 area residents are all “terrified.” They think the same violence as is happening in Gaza will happen in Hebron, it’s just a matter of when.
The Palestinian Health Ministry operated only one medical facility In the H2 neighborhood for patients with acute and chronic diseases. Since October 7, however, Ministry of Health personnel have not been permitted to enter the area.
MSF is now the only group allowed to operate in the region.
Patients with chronic diseases, in particular, are concerned about a lack of follow-up and unavailability of continuing treatment.
Another patient Nadia raised a serious question. “What happens if you’re pregnant and about to deliver? You need to walk to the top of the hill to the checkpoints and pray that the soldiers will let you pass. Having a medical [issue] doesn’t mean that you suddenly have rights.”
MSF’s psychologist stated that the region’s residents are traumatized daily, “making it difficult to find relief.” People of all ages have anxiety, experiencing “bedwetting, nightmares, and isolation.”
Another patient, Fatima, said, “People in this area have been here for a long time, and Israeli settlers and army are kicking them out one by one, by putting pressure on them, restraining access, cutting water pipes, destroying their houses, and so on. But they have nowhere to go.”
On January 7, at least seven Palestinians were killed in Jenin city, also in the West Bank, raising the death toll there to 332. At least 5,600 people have been arrested and more than 3,000 injured since October 7.
Meanwhile, two Journalists were killed in Gaza, Hamzah Al Dahdouh, son of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, and AFP’s videographer Moustafa Thuraya.
Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza has killed at least 22,722 Palestinians and wounded over 58,000 more, since early October according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, while Hamas killed about 1,140 Israelis during the attack.
MSF has been active in the West Bank since 1988, with ongoing operations in Hebron, Nablus, and Jenin. In addition to everyday patient triage, MSF conducts mental health outreach programs, provide medical services and basic health care through mobile clinics, perform capacity-building activities, and educate health facilities and hospitals in mass-casualty response, and emergency response plans.