A/HRC/43/67 November 2018 and 30 September 2019, there were 66 incidents of interference in education by Israeli security forces in H2, including one incident of the military use of a school, which affected 9,526 children (including 461 girls). 47 In the same period, Israeli security forces detained 23 boys who were commuting to or from school, mostly on allegations of stone throwing. 49. Daily acts of violence and harassment of Palestinians by settlers, most often carried out with impunity (see A/74/357, paras. 55–57), compound a coercive environment. While the number of incidents had decreased in previous years, settler violence intensified following the removal of Temporary International Presence in Hebron observers in January 2019 (ibid., para. 54). According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the number of settler attacks causing Palestinian casualties and/or property damage in the doubled to 40 during the period under review. 50. Since late 2015, heightened movement restrictions have further isolated H2. As at April 2019, there were 121 physical obstacles and 21 permanently staffed checkpoints in an area of approximately four square kilometres. Six of them, controlling Palestinian access to the “restricted areas”, were fortified with towers, turnstiles, revolving doors and metal detectors.48 According to a survey conducted in 2019 by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 5,600 Palestinians living in H2 restricted areas must cross one of these checkpoints on foot to reach their homes. Approximately 6,200 (89 per cent of the residents) cannot reach their home by vehicle. 49 Movement and access restrictions are particularly taxing for Palestinians in Tel Rumeida and Ash-Shuhada streets. Since they were designated a “closed military area” in November 2015, only residents registered with Israeli authorities have access to the area. The designation was officially lifted in May 2016, and the checkpoints leading to Tel Rumeida have since been equipped with facial recognition cameras, purportedly to expedite the passage of residents who have an ID registration number. However, residents informed OHCHR that procedures at checkpoints remain uncertain, and that, depending on the Israeli security brigade operating the checkpoint, they may be let through by only showing their ID or may be additionally requested to pass through a metal detector, or be subjected to a humiliating body search.50Access procedures are often applied arbitrarily by Israeli security forces to non-residents. 51. Representatives of a women’s organization operating in H2 informed OHCHR that movement restrictions and risk of harassment at checkpoints and at the hands of settlers have limited women’s access to education, work opportunities and health care, compounding negative aspects of traditional gender roles. Girls are often pressured into early marriage as a means of “protection”, including by leaving H2. In cases monitored by OHCHR, female residents reported they would not leave their homes unless accompanied by men, particularly on Jewish Shabbat, fearing attacks by settlers. In other cases, women reported having to miss medical appointments to avoid crossing checkpoints to and from H1, where most services have relocated. 52. The compounded effect of factors described above creates a coercive environment in H2, where Palestinians are forced to leave their homes and community in the old city. In such circumstances, their decision to leave cannot be considered genuinely “free”, thus raising concerns of forcible transfer. 53. OHCHR and other organizations have previously documented cases of Palestinians leaving their homes in H2, including Tel Rumeida (A/71/355, para. 62; A/73/410, para. 19).51 It gathered information according to which at least 6 Palestinians families moved from Tel 47 48 49 50 51 Data verified by United Nations entities monitoring children affected by armed conflict. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, The Humanitarian Situation in the H2 Area of Hebron City, p. 5. Ibid. See also Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Brief – Forced Population Transfer: the Case of the Old City of Hebron, October 2016, pp. 30–31. See also Eyal Hareuveni, Playing the Security Card: Israeli Policy in Hebron as a Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinians, B’Tselem, September 2019, p. 23; and Simon Reynolds, Coercive Environments: Israel’s Forcible Transfer of Palestinians in the Occupied Territory, Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, February 2017, p. 15. 11