Susiya - Settlers beat a volunteer who came to accompany a shepherd and was taken to Soroka Hospital
First, we reviewed the status of the checkpoints and blockades on Route 60.
Samu’ is open
Dahariya and Abda are still closed as of 7.10.
Dura al-Fawwar junction, the entrances to both settlements are closed.
As above, the entrances to Qilqis and Hebron from both sides are closed.
It is important to clarify that since life must go on, then old people, women and children are on their feet and walking long distances. Goods are also being transported back-to-back.
The Sheep Junction as above.
At the junction, at the turn from Route 60 to Route 356, an army with vehicles is observing.
At the Zif junction, the entrance to Yatta is open. The checkpoint on the dirt road to Yatta via Khalet al-Mai is also open.
At Nabil’s grocery store, we bought groceries for the family of Ahmad Nawaja’a from Susiya. When we arrived, we were happy to see two volunteers who were sleeping there at night and who were with them as they attempt to graze their sheep and to accompany their daughters to school and back, because the settler, Shem Tov Luski, and his hill top youth from ancient Susiya are constantly attacking, threatening and scaring the family.
Ahmad tells me and shows me the order that came from the court signed by Major General Avi Balut, which states that settlers and foreigners are prohibited from entering the lands of Nawaja’a. Happy? Ostensibly, because it says that if they enter, the security forces are allowed to remove them or use reasonable force. Allowed, not required. That is, they can and do not have to use reasonable force, they do not have to stop. This is left to the discretion of the soldiers and police and then? The opinion of the security forces is known.
Indeed, yesterday settlers arrived and the police really did arrive when they were called, but when he showed them the document, the soldiers who also arrived told him: Put the paper in the water and make them drink, we have a lot of problems everywhere, we can’t be everywhere. The volunteers from New Zealand and England slept with them last night and after a short conversation with them they went to the school to accompany the girls on their way home.
Halima says that two days ago eight masked men arrived at 6:30 in the evening. They stood and threw stones at their house and cursed them with words that she does not want to repeat. When the police arrived, they fled. That morning, Ahmad’s nephews came to visit. Then the army arrived and demanded that they leave, claiming that they threw stones at the settlers. These were 5, aged 15-year-old children and they simply ran away to Samu’ and only dared to return to them at 10 at night. This happens every day, she says.
It is fortunate that volunteers come, whose presence gives them a sense of security. They too cannot do anything except take pictures. They are also attacked, as happened a week and a half ago. When a volunteer arrived to accompany a shepherd from the family in the area closer to Yatta, he was attacked, and they beat him so badly that he had to be taken to Soroka Hospital. They emphasize that most of the attacks and harassment come from Shem Tov Luski and his hill top youth. Chronicle of Evil.
Location Description
Dura Al-Fawwar Junction
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Junction on Route 60: west - the town of El Dura, east - the Al Fawwar refugee camp. There is a manned pillbox at the junction. From time to time the army sets up flying checkpoints at the entrance to El Fawwar and Al Dura. Al-Fawwar is a large refugee camp (7,000 inhabitants in 2007) established in 1949 to accommodate Palestinian refugees from Be'er Sheva and Beit Jubrin and environs. There are many incidents of stone-throwing. In the vicinity of the pillbox there are excellent agricultural areas, Farmers set up stalls adjacent to the plots close to the road. In recent months the civil administration has set up dirt embankments thereby blocking access to the stalls, and making it impossible for the farmers to sell their vegetables. Updated April 2021, Michal T.
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Hakvasim (sheep) Junction
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One of the roadblocks (earthworks, rocks, concrete blocks or iron gates) that prevent transit of vehicles to Route 60 in the southern West Bank and block the southern entrance to Hebron. A manned pillbox supervises the place.
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South Hebron Hills
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South Hebron Hills
South Hebron Hills is a large area in the West Bank's southern part.
Yatta is a major city in this area: right in the border zone between the fertile region of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants.
The surrounding villages are called Masafer Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.Since the beginning of the 1980s, many settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with withholding water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.
There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Roadblocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.
Updated April 2022
Michal TsadikJul-25-2025The interior of the burnt house
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Susiya
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Susiya The Palestinian area lies between the settlement of Susya and a military base. The residents began to settle in areas outside the villages in the 1830s and lived in caves, tents and sukkot. To this day they maintain a traditional lifestyle and their livelihood is based on agriculture and herding. Until the 1948 war, the farmers cultivated areas that extended to the Arad area. As a result of the war, a significant portion of their land left on the Israeli side was lost. After the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation, military camps were established in the area, fire zones and nature reserves were declared, and the land area was further reduced. The Jewish settlement in Susya began in 1979. Since then, there has been a stubborn struggle to remove the remains of Palestinian residents who refuse to leave their place of birth and move to nearby town Yatta. With the development of a tourist site in Khirbet Susya in the late 1980s (an ancient synagogue), dozens of families living in caves in its vicinity were deported. In the second half of the 1990s, a new form of settlement developed in the area - shepherds' farms of individual settlers. This phenomenon increased the tension between the settlers and the original, Palestinian residents, and led to repeated harassment of the residents of the farms towards the Palestinians. At the same time, demolition of buildings and crop destruction by security forces continued, as well as water and electricity prevention. In the Palestinian Susya, as in a large part of the villages of the southern Hebron Mountains, there is no running water, but the water pipe that supplies water to the Susya Jewish settlement passes through it. Palestinians have to buy expensive water that comes in tankers. Solar electricity is provided by a collector system, installed with donation funds. But the frequent demolitions in the villages do not spare water cisterns or the solar panels and power poles designed to transfer solar electricity between the villages. Updated April 2021, Anat T.
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Zif Junction
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Zif Junction located on the crossroads that directs towards Road 356 to Yata. Yata is the district city of the southern Hebron Mountains. Usually, this junction is open to traffic. The nearby pillbox is unmanned. But the army and police are present occasionally, sometimes setting up a checkpoint and sometimes detaining residents from the big city. Often, the Israeli policemen inspect vehicles and distribute driving reports to Palestinian vehicles. s
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