Masafer Yatta – a visit to At-Tuwani and Umm al-Kheir
Near the checkpoint on road 60 there is a bugger, lying idle. It may be related to the changes which are being made along the road.
Many uprooted trees are scattered on the ground. Along Route 60 election signs of the Rligious Zionist party with Smotritz’s face. (Photographed near Carmel).
We decided to enter Umm al-Kheir, which we hadn’t visited in a while. At the entrance, a well-maintained playground and a building nearby. In a nearby building there is a painting on the wall of Suleiman who was murdered a few months ago.
The children come to play there all day. The garden was established with the help of donations from abroad.
We were greeted by a young man named Ahmad who turns out to be also active in a Palestinian running group. He works there. He treated us to coffee and tea and answered our questions in good English.
I asked what had happened since the shooting at the yeshiva in the settlement Carmel, which wounded a student and the person who shot, fled. According to him, in the first days after the incident, the army was investigating.
The children who were across the road with their father joined us and enjoyed playing with the dolls we gave them, and also in the playground.
After about half an hour a guy arrived who introduced himself in eloquent Hebrew as Mujahid Hani from Hebron. It turns out that he is a medical student who studied in China but because of the corona virus had to return home and continues his studies at Hebron University.
He did an internship in Eilat, and joined the Arava Institute, hence his knowledge of the Hebrew language. He comes to Masafer Yatta and knows our friends very well. It was very interesting to talk to him.
At-Tuwani:
From there we went to Nasser Adara who said that the day before, around 4:00 p.m., settlers left Havat Ma’on and Abigail (illegal outposts) and with an ATV and a bicycle began to travel inside Mufaqara with batons. According to Nasser, their intention was to expel Fadel and his flock. The army arrived and separated the settlers and Fadel. When asked why they had batons, they claimed it was for putting out fires. They are continually harassing the Palestinians.
At the exit from At-Tuwani there are three armored military vehicles, one behind the other.
A-Tuwani
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A-Tuwani
The locals came to a-Tuwani during the 20th century from the village of Yatta. They settled in abandoned ruins, utilizing the arable land, pastures for grazing sheep and the abundance of natural caves for habitation. The residents who settled in the caves came from families who could not purchase land for houses in the mother villages, as well as shepherds who did not have enough land to graze. They were joined by clan members who quarreled with other families in the mother locality.
Some of the residents today live in concrete buildings built above the caves. In the area of the village are several water cisterns and an ancient water well called 'Ein a-Tuwani. Local residents are forced to buy water in containers and transport them through many road blocks to the village. With the help of international organizations, an electrical system was installed in the village. In the late 90s of the 20tTh century, an elementary school was established in the serving several small villages in the area.
In 2004, MachsomWatch began visiting and reporting from the Khirbet Tuwani cave village, which suffers badly from the settlers of nearby outposts, and especially from the extremist Ma'on outpost. . The settlers contaminate cisterns, poison the flocks and uproot trees.Particularly notable is the harassment of children from the surrounding villages on their way to school in a-Tuwani, so much so that military escort of children is required to separate them from the attackers (this was arranged following an initiative of the organization's members). In the past year, the escort has been without the vital presence of overseas volunteers.
Near a-Tuwani there are several families who have returned to the caves due to the incessant demolitions of the civil administration (as there is a total construction ban in all of area C). Destroyed are not only residential and agricultural buildings, but also water pipes, machinery. Even water cisterns are clogged up. a-Tuwani residents have created an association for non-violent demolition protests, but in the past year the army’s harsh harassment and settler violence have intensified and escalated. The incident of the small generator confiscation, which left a young man paralyzed, is one of many examples - any legitimate protection of property rights leads to violence and even shootings by the army and the civil administration.
Updated April 2022
A Palestinian residentJun-9-2025Fuqiqis - Settler boys arrive with a herd and harass family members
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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
A Palestinian residentJun-9-2025Fuqiqis - Settler boys arrive with a herd and harass family members
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Umm al-Kheir
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Umm al-Kheir
A Palestinian village in the southern Hebron governorate, populated by five families. The Palestinian residents settled there decades ago, after Israel expelled them from the Arad desert and purchased the land from the residents of the Palestinian village of Yatta. The village suffers from the violence of nearby Carmel settlers, from water shortage and is subject to frequent demolition of buildings by the Civil Administration.
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