Israeli policies have pushed many Palestinians out of parts of the West Bank city of Hebron, an official of an international monitoring group based in the city said Monday.
Roar Sorensen of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH), said difficult conditions in the area of the city under Israeli control had led to an exodus, but he did not know how many have left.
The Israeli human rights group "B'tselem" estimates that as many as 15,000 of its 35,000 Palestinian residents have left the Israeli-controlled zone, where about 500 Jewish settlers live in three enclaves. Altogether, about 130,000 Palestinians live in Hebron.
In a lengthy response, the Israeli military insisted soldiers take pains not to harm civilians but did not address the claim that thousands of Palestinians have left parts of Hebron under Israeli control.
The Palestinian governor of the Hebron area, Arif Jaabari, said many Palestinians have fled because of Israeli curfews and other harsh security measures.
"People always feel afraid," he said.
"Anyone who has an opportunity to leave the area will leave," he said.
The monitoring group was established with Israeli and Palestinian consent after an Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinians at a Hebron holy site in 1994. It has 71 unarmed observers from Norway, Italy, Denmark, Turkey and Switzerland who seek to minimize friction between Israelis and Palestinians in the city.
The Jewish enclave, known as "H-2" was left under Israeli control as part of a 1997 agreement with the Palestinian Authority. It is home to about 500 Jewish settlers, considered among the most militant in the West Bank. In all, about 130,000 Palestinians live in Hebron.
"Palestinians are moving out because it is difficult to live in H-2," Sorensen said. "It's hard to do business, hard to move around, and the area is extremely tense."
In its written response, the military admitted that its operations against the militants "have caused unpleasantness and have harmed the civilian population," blaming the militant groups for operating in civilian areas.
The military's policy is to "foil terrorist acts and avoid as much as possible harming civilians," the statement said.
In recent months, it said, the army has removed many roadblocks and allowed hundreds of shops to reopen.
In an interview, Sorensen backed up comments made by the outgoing head of the monitoring group, Jan Kristensen, in Monday's edition of the Israeli daily Haaretz. Sorensen said Kristensen was not speaking for TIPH.
"There are roadblocks in the area all the time," Kristensen told the newspaper. "Once there were more than 100 days of continuous curfew, with only brief interruptions ... The settlers go out almost every night and attack those who live near them. They break windows, cause damage and effectively force the Palestinians to leave the area."
"These are the conditions we are monitoring," Kristensen said.
Noam Arnon, a spokesman for Jewish settlers in Hebron, accused the group of being biased.
"The problem is that this organization has become the mouthpiece of the Palestinian Authority," he said. "This is an organization that is hostile to Jews and to the state of Israel."
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