On Saturday the 1st of August, at 11 pm, Israeli occupation forces
launched a large scale raid into the souk area of the occupied Old City
of Hebron. Before this, a fire began in a house in the souk. The Israeli
army claimed that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown by a Palestinian
into the house, but according to several local sources the Molotov had
been thrown by one or more individuals coming from the nearby illegal
Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah. The Israeli army and police then
claimed that there was some sort of homemade explosive somewhere in the
souk, and proceeded to use as an excuse to declare the area a closed
military zone. The military brought in large amounts of soldiers and
vehicles into the area. Here they raided private homes and broke into
several Palestinian shops. They also randomly detained and arrested a
number of Palestinians and harassed and threatened the international
activists, who were present to document the soldiers.