Israeli Army training on Shuhada

At around 11:00 at night, a group of us ISMers went on our night-time patrol. On Shuhada Street, we noticed a group of six Israeli soldiers and another one who seemed to be commanding them, performing maneuvers. They were training for some kind of urban combat situation... and began crouching down and aiming their rifles towards the windows of the Palestinian homes.

We began to film them and take pictures, and after noticing us they quickly left and went to the settlement side to continue their training. Interestingly, although the training continued in a parking lot filled with the cars of settlers, I did not see any guns pointed towards the windows of the Israelis in the settlement.

Although I found it very disturbing that they would use a Palestinian street as their "practice ground" and aim at people's windows, things can be much worse. Israeli soldiers have been documented to break into Palestinian homes at night, wake people up, handcuff and arrest the men and teens... and then release them, since all this was part of "training". Sometimes, whole villages have been targeted in the raids,to prepare soldiers for the "real thing". Of course, the Palestinians living in them are not been told this is all a "practice".

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/12/palestinian-israeli-training-raids-mock-arrests-human-rights

One of the streets that we go on during our night time patrol.

Israeli soldiers taking up positions on Shuhada, and pointing guns at people's windows (1).

Israeli soldiers taking up positions on Shuhada, and pointing guns at people's windows (2).

Commander gives tips to trainees on how to more effectively aim one's rifle at Palestinian homes.

Soldiers training.

The soldiers begin to move back, towards the settlement.

Training continues. The big building on the left is Beit Hadassa settlement. The houses on the right are a further distance away. They are Palestinian. Notice in which directions the guns are aiming.

After about 15 minutes, the exercise wrapped up.

Palestinian home along Shuhada Street, right next to the settlement. The people going for a stroll are settlers. Picture taken after training finished.

A Palestinian boy looks out the door of his house. The blue Star of David was spraypainted by the settlers.