Twenty years ago, the Old City of Hebron – one of the most important religious sites to Jews and Muslims alike – was crumbling, as curfews and restrictions reduced the Palestinian population to just 400. Then the Hebron Rehabilitation Committee started work

When the Israeli army barricaded the entrance to Usama Abu Sharek’s home in Hebron, he and his family were forced to climb over walls or clamber through windows on their way in and out of their 500-year-old property.

The barricades were to allow hardline Jewish settlers to reach their houses without having to encounter their Palestinian neighbours. But by then the Abu Shareks were the only Palestinian family left in their immediate vicinity of Hebron’s Old City anyway.

...

To date, roughly 6,000 people have moved back to the Old City, mostly relocating from H1 or the villages surrounding Hebron. “Some simply need housing. Some want to return to a place they lived before. Some consider it a national mission to protect this area from being targeted by settlers. Some like it because of the cultural heritage,” said Hamdan. Many of the Old City’s original large properties – known as hosh, and used to house large, extended families – have been divided into smaller apartments, reflecting changes in Palestinian society towards more private living space.

H2 used to be a tense, bleak place of shuttered shops and deserted streets.
H2 used to be a tense, bleak place of shuttered shops and deserted streets. - Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the world. As home to the imposing Tomb of the Patriarchs – the resting place of the biblical figures Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, and their wives Leah, Rebecca and Sarah – it is the second holiest place in the Jewish faith. Also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque, the site holds special significance to Muslims, too. Both religions have had a presence in Hebron stretching back for centuries. © H2 used to be a tense, bleak place of shuttered shops and deserted streets.