Palestinian Authority condemns 'collective punishment'

The Palestinian Authority called on Saturday for international pressure on Israel to protect Palestinians after some residents of the West Bank city of Hebron were displaced from their homes in response to an attack that killed Israeli soldiers.
Confronting 'the growing threats to expand the scope of forced displacement and destruction requires urgent international action that goes beyond condemnation to adopt tangible and deterrent measures', the Authority's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Earlier, Israeli forces pushed into the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday and displaced around 250 families, some in the middle of the night, vowing to exact a heavy price for an attack on soldiers.
The Palestinian Authority called for international pressure on Israel to protect residents, who said soldiers announced the evacuations over loudspeakers late at night as they packed what they could and left.
Days before tight elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was planning an operation on a scale not seen since Israel first occupied the West Bank in 1967, after Palestinians killed two Israeli soldiers on Friday at a checkpoint.
In the Hebron neighbourhood of Ein Deir Baha, nestled between two hills, vacated buildings were marked by X's and the streets were deserted, save a pair of Israeli military vehicles. Israeli flags were draped on a house on the slope apparently taken over by troops.
Higazi Shawer al Tamimi, 70, a shopkeeper who sells live chickens and feed and plays a leadership role in the neighbourhood, said he was awakened at 1:00 am by soldiers and a senior officer who said he had to leave.
'I asked them how long the evacuation would last. They said: 'Until further notice.'
He said he had only short time to pack, adding that for some residents, getting out of the neighbourhood was an ordeal.
'For example, my wife's mother, who is 90 years old and lives in the area, had to be carried out because she is ill,' he said.
To Tamimi, this is only happening because Netanyahu wants to win the election on 'the blood of the Palestinian people'.
He said people were not going anywhere. 'I have lived through all the stages of the occupation, and I will die here.'
The Palestinian Authority said it was mobilising its diplomats to seek 'urgent international action that goes beyond condemnation' to prevent forced displacement.
Tamimi's brother, Khaled Shawer al Tamimi, 68, was staying with his son after the evacuation order.
'The army was announcing through loudspeakers: 'Leave the area.' So we left.'
'We have never seen or even heard a single gunshot being fired,' he said from his son's sitting room as children flitted about.
'Why should I be displaced from my house?' he continued. The attackers 'are the ones who carried out the act, and if the Israeli government wants to punish them, it can punish them.'
Israeli forces have already demolished some buildings in the immediate vicinity of where the attack took place, and the Tamimis said they did not know if their homes would meet the same fate.
Hebron governor Khaled Dudin said the army started in the attackers' neighbourhood 'but there is no guarantee that the operation will not expand', calling it a form of 'collective punishment'.
The governor said 150 families had been affected, while Hebron mayor Youssef al Jaabari and local activist Issa Amro put the figure at 250. SEE ALSO P6