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Haidar Yahya Tamimi spent four months preparing for his wedding, but the 27-year-old was forced to leave his home in the al-Jalada neighbourhood of Hebron, postponing the ceremony indefinitely due to an Israeli military lockdown.
Displacement and Military Operation
Haidar is among more than 3,100 Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced by an Israeli military operation in Hebron, according to the city’s municipality. The operation began after two Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint at the western entrance of the West Bank city on October 23, with both attackers killed by Israeli forces.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered an immediate lockdown in Hebron following the incident. Israeli bulldozers destroyed buildings near the attack site, while forces went house to house in the al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, where the attackers lived.
Wedding and Home Left Behind
Working as a radiology technician at the Palestine Red Crescent Society Hospital in Hebron for about a year, Haidar had planned a feast for Thursday evening and his wedding to his fiancee, Ruba, on Friday. The couple had picked out new furniture and his wedding suit together.
On the evening of October 23, when Hebron was designated a closed military zone, Haidar and his family received orders to leave alongside other residents of al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha. They fled in the middle of the night carrying only what they could manage.
All wedding preparations remained locked inside the inaccessible house, leaving Haidar uncertain about when a return will be possible. Although he managed to reach a nearby vantage point to look at the house, heavy Israeli military presence prevented him from getting closer.
“I looked at the house and saw that my dream was supposed to happen here, but it has been postponed indefinitely,” Haidar told Al Jazeera.
Haidar noted he saw Israeli soldiers surrounding the property, and relatives shared security-camera footage showing soldiers entering his home, though the current state of the house remains unknown. The couple has not chosen a new wedding date, waiting until they can return home.
Business and Travel Disrupted
Residents estimate that the Israeli lockdown has impacted more than 100 businesses in the area. Kamal al-Sharif, the 35-year-old manager of the al-Jalada travel agency Rukn al-Asala, cannot access the office where he has worked with his father for 16 years.
The agency was organizing an Umrah religious pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia for 15 individuals scheduled to leave on Wednesday. With prospective travellers’ passports trapped inside the office and no clarity on when the lockdown will lift, the journey is expected to be delayed or cancelled.
The office also holds seven passports delivered from the Chinese embassy on October 22 for traders scheduled to fly to China on October 26. These traders hold their visas but lack physical passports, preventing their departure, according to Kamal.
One affected trader, a man in his 30s who requested anonymity for security reasons, had prepared to visit an exhibition in China to acquire equipment for his family business. Having cancelled his flight and hotel reservations, the trader remains stranded without knowing when he can secure essential products for his enterprise.
