Dura-Al Fawwar Junction, Hebron, South Hebron Hills
07:30-12:30
Good news – The gates from Beit ‘Anun to Hebron have been opened and traffic flows around the circle and on Highway 60. The entrance to Karameh is also open.
There’s a flying checkpoint at Ukafim junction where Highway 60 meets Highway 35. All yellow taxis are being stopped and pulled over to the side to inspect IDs.
A flying checkpoint also at the exit from Dahariyya, and the exit from Al Fawwar, and also below Beit Haggai.
Hebron – Paratroopers have replaced Nahal soldiers. Only flags remain at Mitzpeh Avichai. Everything else has been removed.
Below Giv’at Ha’Avot, where the Hazon David synagogue once stood, is a police car. All the H2 area appears deserted and the distress is palpable. The checkpoints are deserted. Where is everyone?
Two tales of the occupation:
- At the entrance to the settlement of Adora, on Highway 35, members of a large hamula, men, women and children, wait by the gate, beside a military jeep and the closed entrance to the settlement. They’re waiting for permission to access their fields located inside the settlement, within the fence that surrounds it. More than one hundred dunums. Now everyone is harvesting olives. They say they’re permitted to be inside the settlement only six hours daily, which isn’t enough. The leader of the hamula is talking to the army man. One of his young sons says to me…Why do we need permits to access our own land?…
- A yellow taxi is parked at Beit Haggai, beside a jeep with soldiers. We stop to see what’s happening. It turns out that earlier that morning the soldiers lost the ID of one of the people they were inspecting. She went home and the driver is worried about how she’ll get the ID. Phone calls to the situation room and discussions with the soldiers haven’t helped… The soldiers say they haven’t seen the ID. Why should they care? The young Palestinian woman will have to obtain a new ID – a procedure that costs NIS 400. A great deal of money.
It’s been almost fifty years, and the only change is that things are getting worse…
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.
-
Hebron
See all reports for this place-
According to Wye Plantation Accords (1997), Hebron is divided in two: H1 is under Palestinian Authority control, H2 is under Israeli control. In Hebron there are 170,000 Palestinian citizens, 60,000 of them in H2. Between the two areas are permanent checkpoints, manned at all hours, preventing Palestinian movement between them and controlling passage of permit holders such as teachers and schoolchildren. Some 800 Jews live in Avraham Avinu Quarter and Tel Rumeida, on Givat HaAvot and in the wholesale market.
Checkpoints observed in H2:
- Bet Hameriva CP- manned with a pillbox
- Kapisha quarter CP (the northern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- The 160 turn CP (the southern side of Zion axis) - manned with a pillbox
- Avraham Avinu quarter - watch station
- The pharmacy CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tarpat (1929) CP - checking inside a caravan with a magnometer
- Tel Rumeida CP - guarding station
- Beit Hadassah CP - guarding station
Three checkpoints around the Tomb of the Patriarchs
Raya YeorDec-18-2025Hebron - Yusri Jaber and part of his family
-
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
MuhammadFeb-24-2026South Hebron Hill, Beit Hagai: Paving an internal security road
-