Normally this is the bustling heart of Hebron, the central market, full of traders and carts. Now, there is just wind blowing the canvas. Frontline trouble Israeli soldiers sit on a heavily armoured catwalk above the market square, making sure nobody moves. To protect the few settlers in their midst, the 40,000 Palestinians in this mixed sector live under a constant curfew. It is lifted only for a couple of hours every three days.
People peer from their windows and unlock their doors warily.
Afifi Sirwati is a teacher, trapped and angry. For the past month, she says, there has been no such thing as normal life. During the curfew, we can't go to bring medicine, to bring food, to bring anything we want. On the frontline with Palestinian-controlled Hebron, Israeli soldiers meet with a barrage of chanting and volleys of stones. The clashes have become a ritual but rubber-coated bullets are fired when the troops lose patience.