Protest convoy by Negohot
Protest convoy by NegohotHar Hevron Residents' Council

Residents of the Har Hevron Regional Council embarked on a protest convoy on Friday to the southern Judea town of Negohot. The chain of cars was meant to protest the sharp rise in stones and molotov cocktails thrown on Israel cars on local roads.

The road between Negohot and the village of Adoraim, which has been stricken by terror and has been closed by police in the past, is the main and most direct passage from Negohot to the more central areas near Hevron, as well as Jerusalem. It is also used by many local residents as a short-cut to the central coastal region, as it leads to Highway 6.

"The current situation is unbearable, any trip on the roads could end in tragedy and we expect the army to give a security response to this issue, and to allow us to conduct normal lives," Havi Cohen, a resident of Negohot, told Arutz Sheva.

"This convoy first of all tells us that we aren't alone, that is isn't a problem for Negohot residents only," added Cohen.

Meir Dana-Picard of the Har Hevron Residents' Council also took part in the protest. He declared "we came here today, because it cannot be that citizens in the state of Israel can't arrive home safely. The situation of stone-throwing repeats itself, and this repetition must be stopped."

Terror in the Hevron region was most notably seen recently in mid-April, when Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi was shot dead and two others, including his pregnant wife, were wounded by an armed terrorist. Mizrahi was driving to Kiryat Arba for a Passover seder when he was murdered.

Leftist MKs met with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as Mizrahi was being buried, and told Israeli media that he had condemned the murder, as well as "all other terror attacks."

However, Abbas's office wasted no time denying the condemnation, saying Abbas had simply said "we are against violence and a return to violence," but had not specifically condemned the Hevron attack at all.

A different kind of "convoy" received headlines in March, as Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir by himself stopped an armed PA police convoy traveling on Route 60 between Hevron and Jerusalem without IDF accompaniment in breach of the Oslo Accords.

Ben-Gvir said "this was a band of terrorists travelling on a route filled with Jewish cars; hundreds of children, women and infants drive every morning on that route. Unfortunately some rank of the IDF decided to let the terrorists go, despite it being clear they traveled without permission against the law, endangering the lives of Israelis."