Settler violence increases in the southern Hebron Hills
We went to Mufaqara to see Fadel and his family because the situation there is also getting worse due to the settlers’ harassment.
First, we checked the condition of the checkpoints along Route 60 to the junction where you turn onto route 317.
Most of the entrances to the villages were closed except for the entrance to Samu’, which was open.
Abda, Dahariya, Shweika, the Dura-al-Fawwar junction – everything was closed. At the entrance to al-Fawwar, in addition, there were soldiers standing in a booth.
From the pillbox at the junction, we heard “Big Brother” yelling at a boy who was standing there with a tray of pita bread for sale and telling him to leave immediately. The Qilqis–Hebron entrances are closed. People, women, old people and children are making their way on foot, even with loads and small babies.
At the Sheep Junction, both roads are closed, both to Samu’ and to Hebron.
While driving, Halima, Ahmad Nawaja’a’s wife, calls from Susiya and tells her that they had had a difficult and frightening night. Following a false complaint by a settler about an alleged attempt to run him over by A., an Israeli volunteer. The photographs clearly showed that nothing had ever happened, and the volunteer was released. And yet, all night long, settler and army vehicles circled them with great noise. The harassment is clearly threatening. She says that her two daughters, Sarah and Saura, ages 9 and 11, cried and screamed in fear. Most of the time, they sleep with their grandparents in Yatta because they are afraid, but since the school year is starting, they returned home. A false complaint is also accompanied by threats and intimidation.
We arrived at Nabil’s grocery store and bought groceries for Fadel Hamamda. The roads the shop are blocked. It can only be reached through a-Tuwani.
On the way, as we pass by a-Rakiz, a large group of people are sitting and looking at something in the wadi. There was a lot of tension. We were happy to see that there were also Israeli volunteers there. It turns out that 3 settlers with their herds were coming up the wadi and approaching their territory. The settlers who came from Maon Farm are: Oren, Yossi from the new settlement that had sprung up opposite them, and Amichai Shilo, who is known to us for his violent behaviour towards the Palestinians.
We arrived at Fadel and picked him up from the wadi opposite, to which he had fled when the army arrived before we arrived. When we sat down with him to hear from him what had happened to them this morning, the reason for his escape became clear.
We sat with him and this is what he told us: “This morning we went out with the sheep to our land. Suddenly, three settlers arrived with their herds, started beating us and expelling us. One settler called Oren from Havat Maon and he arrived with an ATV and also called the army. The soldiers first arrested the overseas volunteers, but when they met Mu’ad, they arrested him and released them. I heard them asking about me and then I ran away and hid. I saw that they took Mu’ad to the settlement of Mitzpe Yair and from there to another place and we don’t know where he is.”
I took his ID details from them and passed them on to Nasr Nawaja’a from Susiya, who is a researcher at B’Tselem.
Attorney Qamar Mishraki did not answer but Fadel managed to talk to an attorney named Riham.
During the conversation, a hilltop hooligan sent by Avichai arrives and passes fearlessly, brazenly and deliberately through the path next to their house with food intended for the settlers who are still down in the wadi and plan to go up again and attack.
And the Palestinians are at a loss for words and of course do not dare to oppose the settlers or to say anything.
Location Description
Dura Al-Fawwar Junction
See all reports for this place-
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.
-
Hakvasim (sheep) Junction
See all reports for this place-
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.
-
South Hebron Hills
See all reports for this place-
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
Smadar BeckerApr-10-2026New Israeli flags placed for miles on Highway 317 to prove who is sovereign
-
Susiya
See all reports for this place-
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.
-