Tel Rumeidah, central Hebron: Settler sets dog on Palestinian boy and punches him in the eye; soldier assaults father who comes to his aid

On Thursday afternoon, 17 November 2020, Taysir Abu ‘Eishah (59) and his son Haitham (13) were walking home in the Tel Rumeidah neighborhood in central Hebron. They were carrying pipes for a heating system. When father and son drew near the Tel Rumeidah Checkpoint (Gilbert), installed some 20 meters from their home, they noticed two soldiers and a settler with a dog who were sitting on a stone wall by the roadside.

As the two passed by the settler and the soldiers, the former got up and set his dog on Haitham. A physical confrontation ensued, which included kicking and shoving. In the end, the settler punched Haitham in the right eye. When Taysir Abu ‘Eishah went over and tried to pull his son away from the settler, one of the soldiers pushed him and knocked him to the road. After Abu ‘Eishah managed to get up, several soldiers arrived along with an officer, who ordered father and son to go home.

Meanwhile, a Red Crescent ambulance arrived to take a neighborhood resident to hospital, and its crew gave Haitham first aid on the spot.

In a testimony he gave B’Tselem researcher Musa Abu Hashhsash, Haitham Abu ‘Eishah described the attack:

As we passed by the checkpoint, I heard the settler’s dog run after me. I turned around and was so scared that I threw the pipes I was carrying down on the road. The settler came over to me, pushed me into the alley by the checkpoint and grabbed me by the shirt and collar. The alley is hidden from the view of the security camera on our roof.

The settler kept pushing me and then he punched me in the right eye. I tried to get away from him but couldn’t, because he was bigger than me. The two soldiers didn’t intervene and didn’t help me, and then my father came over and pulled me away from the settler.

Just then, a soldier came over to my father, pushed him hard and knocked him over. My father got up, and meanwhile, other soldiers and an officer arrived and ordered us to go home quickly. An ambulance came to our street to take my neighbor away, and one of the paramedics gave me first aid and put some ointment on my eye.

I went up to the roof with my father to install the pipes we’d brought, and then I saw the soldier who’d attacked my father playing fake boxing with the settler who’d attacked me. Then I saw the same settler block the ambulance’s path after my neighbor got into it.

Most of us in the neighborhood know that settler, because he harasses us and sets his dog on us to scare us.