Water shortage in the Hebron area
We drove again along Route 60 to review the status of the blockades and checkpoints.
In Simiya – the dirt roadblocks were opened by the residents, and their cars are making their way through them. The force of life is compelling.
The entrance to Samu’ is open
The entrance to Dahariya is still closed ever since October 7.
Abda is closed.
In front of the spring near the Dura al-Fawwar junction, a checkpoint is manned by two soldiers. I always wonder why this place is monitored and secured.
Dura al-Fawwar junction – both entrances to the two villages are closed. A little further on, we drive to Dura on bypass roads. And there we can see events like the one we saw in the past: the IDF stops a truck that is trying to drive, the soldiers park the truck across the road, take the keys from the driver and leave. People following him besides the driver get stuck and sometimes wait for long hours, until the truck keys are returned to the driver.
Abuse and force are the names of the game.
Another alternative road was blocked in a barbed wire.
The southern entrance to Hebron at the foot of Beit Hagai is closed.
At the Qilqis–Hebron junction, the entrances are closed on both sides. At the Hebron Sheep Junction, the entrances are closed.
We went to Se’ir to meet Yael Zoran’s friend who had asked to send him something. The man says that in Hebron and all the villages surrounding the city, Halhul, Bani Na’im, Se’ir, there has been no water for a month. The supply of water was cut off. The PA says that Israel cut it off, they don’t know the reason. This means that in Hebron and its suburbs, over 300,000 people are without water. “I didn’t even have water to wash my face,” he says. People buy themselves 8 cubic meters per family per month for 200 NIS. That’s barely enough for a month. The supply is problematic and causes a lot of arguments and provocations. There is also a problem with the fuel supply. Fuel is brought to the stations once a week and serious fights break out between people again.
The divide and rule system is well established there.
He says that the behaviour of the soldiers at the checkpoints is also abusive. Sometimes they beat up young people, not old people. They shout and curse, they demand to see what’s on their phones. They’ve even shot and killed for no reason. According to the army, there’s always justification. It’s enough for a person to put their hand in their pocket and the soldier suspects they’re about to pull out a weapon, so they shoot. Two of his cousins were killed just like that.
The Chronicle of Violence.
We drove towards the Zif Junction. Beautiful new plots of land planted by settlers, well-watered, with no shortage of water. The Palestinians can’t even wash their faces.
At the Zif Junction, the road to Yatta is open.
At Nabil’s grocery store, we bought food for Ahmad Nawaja’a, who is not allowed to go out to graze his sheep and is constantly harassed by the Shem Tov Luski boys. We also went to visit Azzam and Wadha. First of all, they also tell us what makes them happy and excited. It turns out that there was a group of young people there, 12 in number, who came to learn Arabic with the women of Eid and Nasr. They stayed with them for 3 months and were very interested in what was happening and were involved. They accompanied people to the pasture and were constantly by their side. “Do you understand?” He explains: “Everyone started calling me father, everyone asks to be close to me and I’m excited to be the father of 12 more young people. It’s binding and exciting and I feel like I’m being very respected.
I’m also excited and, above all, happy that there are young people who come, are interested and help.
It’s not just us, the eccentric old women, and a few other crazy people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, who will soon be gone.
Then he says that on Thursday night, at about 10:30, settlers from the old Susiya arrived, shouted, threatened, cursed, knocked on people’s doors and windows, and set fire to a car belonging to one of the volunteers and fled. The police arrived, but no one came close to putting out the fire, until Palestinian firefighters arrived. The fire also engulfed a fuel tanker parked nearby.
Miraculously, Nasser Shartah’s wife and child, who live there and were nearby, were not hurt. Azzam seemed very tired to me. And when I asked, he replied that they are very vigilant at night because they constantly detect settlers organizing. The police go around but never arrest anyone, even those whose behaviour is proven to be criminal. At most, they are detained for a day or two and then sent home.
He again shows how they are surrounded by the three new settlements in question.
The Shepherds’ Shelter farm is right next to the Jewish Susiya. There is a settler there named Amishav Peled who has never been arrested. Further along the farms of Malka and Pavel, they have never been arrested either, neither they nor their sons who go wild with a noisy ATV and motorcycle, cursing every night. Malka, he says, is more extreme than her sons. And further along the Luski family, in the ancient Susiya. They were arrested on charges of proven violence. But they were released, of course.
The Banality of Evil it used to be called once.
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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Sa'ir
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A relatively affluent suburb of Palestinian Hebron. West of Highway 60 leading from Bethlehem to Hebron. The entrance to Highway 60 and to Shuyukh and Beit Einun to the east is open, but is subject to changes - concrete blocks denying passage are stationed according to the needs of the army.
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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 TsadikJan-29-2026Umm al-Khair - a security risk for Carmel settlers
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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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