Field Update

25 September 2023

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the ongoing assaults by unknown gunmen on members of Hebron Municipal Council and reiterates its call on the public prosecution to investigate these attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice.

According to information collected by PCHR, at around 19:40 on Sunday, 24 September 2023, masked gunmen stopped a car belonging to the Hebron Municipal council member ‘Abed al-Kareem Farrah (44) when he was in al-Zaytoun suburb driving on his way back home to Senjer suburb in the center of Hebron.

Suddenly, five people in black clothes with batons and pistols stepped out of their car and one of them fired a bullet at Farrah’s car, hitting the wing mirror. The other gunmen attacked the latter’s car, forcing Farrah out of it, and severely beat him with batons all over his body.

Afterwards, one of the gunmen fired 2 live bullets at Farrah, wounding him in his right leg. The gunmen left Farrah on the ground and fled the scene after seizing his car and shooting in the air. Immediately, people from the area gathered and an ambulance arrived and took Farrah to Ahli Hospital in the city, where he underwent surgery. It turned out that he sustained fractures and lacerations in his right leg bones.

Later, Farrah’s car was found burned in Um al-Dalia area in southern Hebron while in the same evening, masked gunmen opened fire at several shops in Hebron.

It is worth noting that this assault is part of a series of attacks that occurred on Wednesday, 20 September, and on Thursday at dawn, 21 September, when unknown persons attacked public figures and property, including a shooting on a car belonging to the Hebron Deputy Mayor, Asmaa Al-Shurbati, and on a clinic belonging to her husband, Dr. Amjad al-Hamouri, in the city, in addition to a shooting on an electricity services office and Hebron Municipality’s parking lot for garbage trucks.

PCHR is deeply alarmed by these assaults, the escalation of security chaos, and the assault on the rule of law in the West Bank.

PCHR calls on the public prosecution to open a serious investigation into these attacks and urges the Palestinian Government to take effective measures to stop the state of security chaos that jeopardizes the right to life, the rule of law, and civil peace.