Hebron, South Hebron Hills
08:30-12:30
School started today in the Palestinian Authority. We should time our shifts for when the children go through the checkpoints early in the morning, or at 10:45 when they return home.
In general, things are calm and quiet. Here’s what I saw today…
The Giv’ati unit has returned to Hebron – Tzabar battalion… the purple berets and the Border Police man the checkpoints.
A police car drove by and asked me not to enter the location where the Hazon David synagogue once stood. They drive by repeatedly to ensure it’s not being rebuilt – on the other side of the junction there’s an attempt to erect the synagogue. The policemen told me the Palestinians may now cultivate the land…but they can’t promise that the settlers won’t interfere.
Here’s the renovated Pharmacy checkpoint. They’ve separated those leaving from those entering and installed two revolving gates, made the fences higher and erected a guard tower between the two crossing points. People coming through said it’s much easier now and they’re almost never detained. In my opinion, a checkpoint’s still a checkpoint.
At the checkpoint beyond Beit Hameriva a number of Palestinian vehicles are being allowed through, the lower checkpoint isn’t manned, a Palestinian stops his car, yells to the soldier on the roof of the building, tells him the license number and the soldier checks his list and lets him through (The Palestinians asked that I not photograph).
Along Highway 60, the localities that had been “present absentees” without road signs identifying them maintained their existence and have reappeared – Abda, Deir Razah and Dahariyya… But not Karameh.
On the morning of 22.10.12, on our shift in Hebron, we found a confused family, a car that had been set on fire and this scrawl:
Today we visited the Sindous family to show our support and apologize again…Ettinger has been placed in administrative detention, but his colleagues, who set fire to a home and its occupants in the village of Duma still haven’t been caught.
The lives of the members of the Dawwasha family would have been saved had the authorities acted then…
Hebron
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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
Muhammad D.May-13-2026Hebron - Request for compensation for land expropriation
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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.Jul-13-2026Michal with O.
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