Rakiz - Visit to Sheikh Said who was attacked by a settler from Avigail
We drove along Route 60 to meet N., our friend from the Dura area, and give him food and a few toys for the children. He told us that he and his wife had been detained while leaving their village. When the soldiers saw that she was pregnant, however, they released them relatively quickly.
This is what their daily routine looks like: in addition to the outposts springing up around them, there has been no work since October 7.
We continued to Rakiz to meet Sheikh Sa’id al-Amour. Before going there, we bought a food basket for the family at the grocery store at the entrance to A-Tuwani.
We visit the Sheikh from time to time, but on this occasion we came because of an incident documented on video. A young settler from Avigail, the nearby settlement, arrived with a friend who was driving an ATV and filming what happened.
As you may recall, Sheikh Sa’id al-Amour lost his leg following a horrific incident in which Benjamin Bodenheimer shot him in the leg. He was rushed to Soroka Hospital, underwent leg amputation, and was transferred to the intensive care unit. There, he was tied to the bed on the grounds that he was dangerous, according to the security forces. He later continued to receive treatment at a hospital in Hebron.
The two young men arrived at Sheikh Sa’id’s home and harassed his son. The Sheikh heard a commotion and went outside to see what was happening. He saw them throwing stones and trying to enter his home. One of them, who was holding an iron bar, knocked Sa’id to the ground and mercilessly beat him on his back and leg.
Sa’id was in severe pain and was taken by a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance to the hospital in Yatta. After receiving treatment, he returned home.
The two young men, whose cruelty and malice are difficult to put into words, fled the scene. However, the video documenting the incident went viral and was broadcast or published by HaTzinor, Mekomot, Ynet, Al Jazeera, and numerous other media outlets and online networks.
See the photographs attached to the report.
Both young men were apprehended. According to a conversation I had with the lawyer assisting the family, the driver was placed under house arrest. We still have no information regarding the young man who beat Sa’id.
Sa’id initially filed an online complaint. Later, with the help of friends who drove him, he went to the police station in Kiryat Arba.
International activists maintain a protective presence there at night.
Bodi, the settlement security coordinator because of whom Sheikh Sa’id lost his leg, closed the road between Avigail and Rakiz. Yet at the Kiryat Arba police station, an officer claimed that Sheikh Sa’id himself had blocked the road. This is hardly surprising: blaming the Palestinian victim is a routine practice.
As the sheikh puts it:
“The amputation and the wound are not what hurt. What hurts is the thought that we may no longer live here.”
We brought toys for the young children, as well as donated clothing and other items, as we usually do.
Every visit breaks our hearts and leaves us no peace.
#ThisIsTheOccupation
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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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
Muhammad D.Sep-20-2026Smadar in Khirbet al-Kharabah
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