Military Training Exercises
in South Hebron Hills
8 December 2004 - AT-TUWANI, IN THE SOUTH HEBRON HILLS- On Tuesday, 7
December 2004, the Israeli military engaged in military training
exercises in the hills around At-Tuwani, Tuba and, Al-Mufaquara.
According to a Palestinian from At-Tuwani this was the first time that
the military has trained this close to the village. The exercises began
without warning, leaving Palestinian residents scared and endangered.
At 8:00 am a shepherd from At-Tuwani discovered a suspicious object on a
hill near his village. Palestinians tending the land nearby summoned
CPTers Kristin Anderson and Diane Janzen and an Operation Dove member to
the area. On the way the group passed several camouflaged Israeli
soldiers with weapons and binoculars who were positioned on the ground.
The soldiers confirmed that it was a military training exercise, and
when questioned about why the exercise was being carried out in a
civilian area, the soldiers said that the area was a military training
area. The soldiers then said that the Operation Dove member should stop
taking pictures or he would have problems. (There is an area south of
At-Tuwani that is part of the Israeli military Fire Zone 918.The Israeli
military is currently proposing to evacuate the Palestinians living in
the southern part of this Fire Zone, but not in the northern part near
Tuba and At-Tuwani. The proposal for the evacuation is under dispute in
the Israeli High Court.)
The internationals went with villagers to the area of a suspicious
object and found it wedged upright between rocks. The object consisted
of a black plastic tube (three feet in length and four inches in
diameter) connected by wires to a small black box that had several dials
on it. The Palestinian landowner called the Israeli police while the
group waited at a distance for them to arrive. The shepherd and two boys
continually guided the sheep away from the area.
Upon arrival, plain-clothes policemen ordered the group to retreat
another 200 meters, saying that, "It was not safe and that it could be a
bomb." A "bomb squad" arrived shortly after, briefly inspected the
object and left.
The landowner who was in
communication with the police reported that the "bomb squad" was
comprised, not of police, but of military personnel, who stated the
object was part of a military training exercise that began the previous
night and would end that night. The gathered Palestinians then left the
area to continue working and the internationals continued to observe
military activity.
Throughout the morning and into the afternoon, three military
helicopters hovered and landed on hilltops near At-Tuwani. Loud
explosions could be heard from numerous directions. F-16s flew through
the sky doing maneuvers and dropping flares.
The daily life of the Palestinians in the area was disrupted by the
Israeli military training exercises. Shepherds had to change where they
took their sheep, farmers altered where they plowed, and the explosions
scared children on their way home from school.
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Christian Peacemaker Teams is an ecumenical initiative to support
violence reduction efforts around the world. To learn more about CPT's
peacemaking work, please visit our website at:
http://www.cpt.org.
