The Jewish communities of Hevron and Kiryat Arba expect their ranks to swell by 20,000 this Shabat, when the Torah portion of the week leads off with the reading in Genesis about the patriarch Abraham purchasing the Cave of the Machpelah as a tomb for his wife Sarah. Also buried there are their son Isaac and his wife Rebecca, and their son Jacob and his wife Leah. The tomb of Jacob's other wife Rachel is between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The occasion marks one of only ten days a year that the hall above the grave of Isaac is open to Jews in the wake of the killing of a number of Arabs there by Dr. Baruch Goldstein in 1994.

Some of the thousands, especially youth, are expected to stay in Peace House to reinforce its residents against imminent eviction efforts by the government.