On the morning of 7 January 2010, Israeli soldiers chased and beat Palestinian shepherds from the Musa Raba’i family as the family grazed their sheep in Humra valley near the village of at-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. When more at-Tuwani residents arrived to try and calm things down, the soldiers threw stun grenades and tear gas canisters.
The soldiers also shoved the internationals accompanying the shepherds and intentionally broke a CPT video camera. Two women, one elder and one pregnant, had to be hospitalized from the effects of tear gas inhalation. Three of the shepherds received medical treatment for their injuries, and a young boy’s tooth was broken.
The soldiers arrested one of the shepherds, Musab Musa Raba’i, and took him to a military base at the nearby Suseya settlement. For four hours, soldiers questioned Raba’i, beating him on the back and face and slamming him into walls. They threatened to come to his house to kill him and his brothers.
Eventually the soldiers turned Raba’i over to Israeli police who drove him to an unknown location and threw him, blindfolded, out of the jeep. Family members, accompanied by CPTers, were able to locate him and bring him home.
Two months later, an article by Amira Hass entitled, “Settlers’ call sends Palestinian shepherd to IDF beating,” which details the attack, was published in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz. Footage of the incident, filmed by CPTers, is available for viewing at: https://goo.gl/YiwA.
