Route 317

The agricultural dirt roads from the main road to the villages are blocked by piles of earth (for example in front of the village of Ma’in) – forcing the Palestinians to detour and making the journey longer. The main roads occupied by dirt are not blocked – there is an option to set up a mobile barrier.

Susiya:

Nasser received a visit from two women from the European Union who came with Yehuda of Breaking the Silence.

We were sitting in the yard of Wadha and Azzam. They try their best to cultivate an orchard in the rock holes but the local water well is barely enough to water the goats, and the purchased water is transported by truck and is very expensive. On the shaded balcony, where the summer beds are the couches for guests, Wadha nurtures a glorious potted garden.

Azzam tells about the harassment of the settlers: shots in the middle of the night in the direction of their dogs. Once a settler came on a horse at ten at night and harassed the dogs and the men sleeping in the summer at the entrance to the house. Once the carcass of a possibly poisoned calf was thrown because one of their dogs died of poisoning.

Umm al-Kheir:

We went to check the details about the video that was sent the day before in which the settlers from Carmel are seen marching through the small village.

The proximity between this modest village, which only recently had a few stone houses and a playground built there, and the houses of the settlement of Carmel is really troubling. Carmel surrounded itself with a double barbed wire fence, as if there was a border here, it has a water tower that allows for proper gardens, and next to it – a small and poor settlement. We confirm what was captured in the video – about fifty children accompanied by a military vehicle left Carmel marching and singing accompanied by musical instruments, all the way to the chicken farms across the road. When they passed through Umm al-Kheir they cursed its inhabitants while singing and dancing.

Route 60:

We found that the current policy of blockades is in force: all the entrance roads to Hebron are now controlled by the army – three soldiers with rifles pointed at the people are checking those leaving Hebron in the direction of road 60. This is the case at the Sheep Junction, in Qilqis and the southern exit in front of Beit Hagai. The inspection is strict, they check documents, peek into the vehicles and as a result long lines of cars are formed at the exit.

At the southern exit, a car and two women are detained. When I spoke to the soldiers, they claimed that they were terrorists on their way to an attack. When I asked to know how to identify terrorists, the soldier explained to me that one of them was denied entry due to previous convictions, and that the other had photos of martyrs and weapons on his phone. Definitive proof indeed.

South of Hebron, new guard booths manned by soldiers with drawn weapons appeared above the road. This is the case at the entrance to Deir Razih as well as at the Negohot junction.