Sha'ab al-Butum - Settlers speed through private Palestinian land, endangering children
We travelled via Route 60, even though Route 317 shortens the route to Sha’ab al-Butum.
There is nothing new at the main checkpoints. Sometimes a checkpoint that is usually closed is opened, for a short and unknown time.
The plan was to visit another place that was important to us, but in light of an attempted car-ramming incident, it was urgent to get there. There are so many incidents nowadays that it is sometimes difficult to know where to go first.
We have blankets that were delivered by members of Machsomwatch to be delivered to our Palestinian friends for the winter.
We stopped at Nabil’s to buy food for the extended family of Is’haq Jabarin. Is’haq and his two wives live in one house with their children. They number thirteen people. His sons live nearby, who have their own families.
Is’haq and his wife Hitmat say that on Friday, December 5, 2025, at around 4:30 PM, Is’haq and his sons were plowing their land with a tractor, in preparation for the barley sowing season. Young settlers from the Amichai Shiloh farm arrived at the plowed area, riding an ATV, and claimed that the area belonged to Amichai, the owner of the Droma farm near Umm Darit (the home of Leila and Muhammad Jabarin). A few minutes later, a military pickup truck arrived with three female soldiers and a male soldier. Is’haq called the police to report, and the answer he received was, if the army is there, we won’t come.
After a short time, the soldiers arrested Ismail, claiming that he was wanted by the army, and drove him to the military base in Susiya.
Before the soldiers left, they ordered Yis’haq and his family to leave the plowed area and return home. The settlers who were in the area managed to get back to Sha’ab al-Butum, to Yis’haq and Hitamat’s house. She recorded what happened on video, and the children went out to see what the commotion was about. It can be seen that the settlers drove quickly, almost running over the children, who were screaming in panic.
Amichai Shilo arrived with his pickup truck, and the young and violent settlers told him that the children had thrown stones at them, which was of course a blatant lie.
The police arrived after about 40 minutes, and the settlers returned to the farm. Amichai Shilo and another settler who accompanied him spoke to the police, who demanded that the young settlers return to Yis’haq’s house to give testimony. The police asked them to file a complaint that the children had thrown stones at them, with the Kiryat Arba police. I assume they won’t do that, they have no reason.
Amichai Shilo pushed Khalil, Yis’haq’s son, towards their house, and Khalil told him that he had the right to be outside his house, that this was territory that belonged to them. The police arrested Khalil, took him to the base in Susiya, where, as I documented, his brother Ismail was. The two said that at the base in Susiya they blindfolded them and laughed at them. Towards the end of the event, Bodi, the notorious Avigail’s chief of security, arrived to show his presence and control of the situation.
At night, Ismail and Khalil, who had been arrested in vain and had been humiliated, were returned. During our visit, Khalil went to the Kiryat Arba police station to file a complaint.
They have no expectations that this will do them any good. They do it despite the difficulty of travelling there, and the money for the taxi, for the documentation, and also because of the request of attorney, Kamar Mishraqi, who asked them to do so.
Over and over again, abuse, limitless violence.
We left the food supplies and bags of clothes and blankets for them.
We left with a heavy heart.
#ThisIsTheOccupation
Location Description
Mesafer Yatta
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This is happening in Fire Area 918 in the South Hebron Hills
On the eve of Remembrance Day (the day before Israel Independence Day), 4th May, 2022, the Israeli High Court decided on the transfer and expulsion of residents from 8 Palestinian communities in the area of Masafar Yata in the South Hebron Hills. Residents of the villages have been living under the threat of demolition, evacuation and expropriation since the IDF issued evacuation orders in 1999 based on the 1980s proclamation of their area of residence as a firing zone for IDF drills. None of the nearby settlements were included in this zone. The Masafer Yata Palestinian villages retain a special lifestyle and ancient agricultural culture. They also posess a clear historical documentation that testifies to a Palestinian settlement in this area, generations before the establishment of Israel, long ago in the caves and at later times outside them.
Evacuating residents from the area means destroying these historic villages and leaving entire families (about 2,000 people, children, adults, and the elderly) homeless. This is contrary to international law.
In June 2022, a firing drill started, and life became harder.
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Sha'ab al-Butum
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This is one of the small Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the southern Hebron Hills, near the settlement of Mitzpe Avigail.
Since the outbreak of the October 7, 2023 war, settler violence against residents has escalated greatly, as in the entire Palestinian community. This violent conduct receives full backing from the state and full cooperation from the IDF. The goal is to make the lives of the Palestinian residents miserable and make them abandon and leave.
The population consists of mostly shepherds who peacefully seek to cultivate the land and graze their sheep, whom the settlers treat as a dangerous enemy. They prohibit them from any movement related to herding sheep and cultivating the land and harm everything: trampling crops, breaking olive trees, smuggling herds, scaring shepherds, conducting wild searches of houses, shouting, cursing and threatening - at all hours of the day. "We are Besieged, but will not move from our land," says Lila G. New settlements are springing up around them. At first it's a bus or a truck that turns into residential buildings, on top of which every week more residential buildings and animal sheds are added. With the open encouragement of the current government, Jewish terrorism is raising its head, with authority and permission. The settlers have received army uniforms and weapons, and no one is stopping them. The police, who are supposed to protect the Palestinians from the settlers' riots, sometimes respond to calls for help, but in practice they don't do much more than provide them with a report, and they are required to go and file a complaint in Kiryat Arba Settlemnt police station . Though the settlers' identities are known, they are !never arrested.
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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 TsadikDec-23-2025Wadi Shahish - The family car vandalized by settlers
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