The Humanitarian Crisis in Hebron: Facing Challenges Amid Escalating Aggression Against Palestine

Prepared By: Hebron Municipality

The situation has worsened in Palestine since 7 October 2023. The renewed aggression by the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) has had a devastating impact on the Gaza Strip, also affecting the West Bank, including the Hebron city. Hebron is a major urban centre in the West Bank. In a complex and volatile environment, the Hebron Municipality has always demonstrated strong commitment to enhance flexibility and response to citizens’ emerging needs, using an approach that is deeply rooted in the principles of development, inclusion, and resilience. 

Particularly in response to the current crisis, the Hebron Municipality’s commitment is illustrated by building resilience and increasing the quality of life of the local community. As the city faces consequences of the intensified aggression, the municipality has taken decisive action to ensure the continuity of basic services and support to citizens. To this avail, emergency plans have been implemented to address critical issues, such as waste management, water shortage, and road closure. Through pre-emptive governance, the municipality has shown adaptation capacity, ensuring that local community needs are met despite challenges. Not only is the municipality’s approach responsive, but it also has an ambitious vision for the future, emphasising sustainable urban development and community empowerment. 

Targeting the Hebron Municipality’s powers: A step towards annexing the old city 

Singed on 15 January 1997 between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron identifies Palestinian and Israeli powers and control. It divides the city into two parts. Comprising 80% of the city area, H1 is under Palestinian control. Covering the old city, the remaining 20% (H2) is under Israel’s control. The protocol vests the Hebron Municipality with civil service powers in the H2 area. 

In a new step to revoke Palestinian powers in Hebron, particularly around the Ibrahimi Mosque which is under the Israeli security control, the Israeli Hebron Settlement Council replaced waste containers of the Hebron Municipality with Israeli ones, clear encroaching on the municipality’s powers under the Palestinian-Israeli agreements. In particular, the Hebron Protocol provides that the municipality jurisdiction covers areas adjacent to the Ibrahimi Mosque as well as the old city as a whole. However, Israel has curtailed the jurisdiction in order to expand activities of Israeli local government units and undermine Palestinian powers. Since it seized control over the old city, Israel has deliberately breached the protocol, displaced the local population, and failed to recognize the very minimum of their rights. Since 7 October, Israel has imposed a tight siege and movement restrictions on citizens. 

The Hebron Municipality provides services to some 5,000 Palestinians in several areas designated as “closed”, namely, Tal Remeida, Shuhada Street, Wadi al-Hassin, the vicinity of the Sultan Pool, Jaber neighbourhood, the area surrounding the Ibrahimi Mosque, and As-Sahleh Street. The municipality encounters many obstacles when it operates in these areas. 

The IOF prevent municipal staff from working, restrict their movement, obstruct maintenance works, and refuse follow-up on issues with the electricity grid or sewerage networks. This should not be merely interpreted as an impingement on the Hebron Municipality’s powers. Rather, it is a step towards imposing a new fact on the ground: a settler municipality is created that starts with replacing garbage receptacles and ends up with providing all services. As a prelude to annexation, this will separate the area from its historical roots and severe its geographical and administrative contiguity. It entrenches the claim that the Israeli settlement in the old city is inevitable. In the lead-up to full annexation, Israel’s military and settler presence in this area is heading towards eternal settlement. 

The most recent measure taken to implement Israel’s plan of displacing Palestinians and depopulating the old city was the oxy-acetylene welding of doors of the old municipal building. In 2023, the IOF issued an eviction notice to seize and hand the building over to settlers. Of note, the case is still in legal process. The municipality possesses all legal and official documents, which prove its ownership of the building. 

The Israeli judicial system is impartial and has racist attitudes towards just Palestinian issues. However, it is still one available option to document the Hebron Municipality’s resolute rejection of decisions to Judaise and rob the Palestinian heritage and identity. The municipality continues its efforts to initiate proceedings at Israeli courts and place pressure on the Israeli government through the international community and human rights organizations. It seeks to put an end to abuses and counter attempts to annex large swathes of the Hebron city, expropriate the municipality’s jurisdiction, and Judaise the old city and Ibrahim Mosque, both included in the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger. 

Waste management crisis 

Closure has exacerbated the waste management crisis in Hebron. This has been a critical issue due to challenges posed by locked entrances to the city and restrictions on pedestrian and vehicular movement. Consequently, it has been difficult to transfer waste to the main sanitary landfill in the Al-Minya area in southern Bethlehem, which used to receive 300 tonnes of waste a day. To tackle the waste management crisis, the municipality had to operate an emergency landfill in the southern area and construct a new dumpsite in Tarqumiya. 

Closing off main entrances to the city has caused severe traffic jams, which the municipality resolved by constructing new access roads to alleviate traffic congestion and impact of the closure on citizens’ movement. 

Water shortage 

The Hebron Municipality has faced an acute crisis when the Israeli Mekorot Company reduced water supplies by 35% as a collective punishment under the shadow of war. To deal with this crisis, the municipality has taken several importance measures. To maintain equitable distribution of water and despite water scarcity, the municipality ensures that all areas have access to water. Priority is given to closed zones and areas adjacent to settlements because the IOF prevents for water tanks from accessing these areas. An awareness raising campaign has been launched to rationalize water consumption and keep citizens posted of the latest updates to ensure that everyone cooperates to overcome this crisis. 

Psychological relief and healthcare initiatives 

In conjunction with the genocide against Gaza, the longstanding curfew imposed on certain areas across Hebron has had a severe psychological impact on children. In response to this crisis, through the Jaber Community Centre, the Hebron Municipality has carried out a series of activities to provide urgently needed psychological relief to help children overcome stress and trauma. In partnership with Medecins sans frontières, the municipality established free medical clinics and distributed essential medicines. These efforts were critical to provide primary healthcare and psychosocial support and ensure the safety of affected communities in the face of difficult circumstances. 

In this volatile and complex environment, the Hebron Municipality and community’s determination is a living example of resilience. The municipality’s response and management of the ongoing emergency has been swift and committed to community protection with a view to moving forward. It is grounded in solidarity, adaptation capacity, and a common vision of a better future.