Eyewitnesses said that dozens of soldiers, accompanied by armored bulldozers, broke into the dairy factory in the ar-Rahma neighborhood, east of Hebron, and declared the area a closed military zone, preventing journalists and residents from entering it.
Sheikh Hatem al-Bakri, head of the administrative board of the Islamic Charitable Society, said the factory provides the needed means for caring for the orphans in the Hebron District.
"What is happening is an attack on the orphans themselves: several months ago, the army confiscated various machines with an estimated monetary value of $2 million," al-Bakri told the Maan News Agency. "This factory is essential for the services, and charitable aid we provide."He added that the society contacted its legal advisor, lawyer Jawad Boulos, who informed them that Israel alleges the factory, and the charitable society are "run by Hamas".
"However, the children, the orphans, are the ones who pay the price for Israel's assaults and allegations," Boulos stated.
The Charitable Society decided to open this factory in order to fund services it provides to the orphans, especially with the rising costs amidst the tough conditions in the Palestinian territories, under Israel's illegitimate occupation.
Comment: If you think Israel targeting Palestinian orphans is new, think again. In 2008, for example, hundreds of Israeli occupation troops stormed a Palestinian orphanage and boarding school in Hebron and looted millions of dollars worth of food, dairy products, clothes, shoes, refrigerators, kitchen equipment, crates of frozen meat, sanitary supplies, sports equipment, blankets and mattresses...used by as many as 7,000 orphans, run by the Islamic Charitable Society. They forced open the main gate and loaded everything on trucks in order to liquidate social and educational infrastructures at the price of innocent children. On this same rampage, Israel confiscated several school buildings, an orphanage, a supermarket, several apartment buildings, school busses and destroyed other businesses - - looting computers, cabinets, furniture, appliances and even taking the windows. This was organized robbery. Gestapo style. Heartless. Pathological.