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Mufaqara - confiscation of a tractor

Place: South Hebron Hills Tarqumiya CP
Observers: Raya Y. Translator: Natanya
Dec-15-2021
| Morning

At the Tarkumiya checkpoint, there is a very heavy  traffic of vehicles and passage of goods into the West Bank and this passes through all hours of the day. Behind the checkpoint the parking lot is full.

We arranged to meet Awwaz el Ahdam  to return to him a small package containing money and belongings. The package remained in Ayalon Prison after his release and was transferred to Awwaz (estimated time for the operation from prison to 4 hours).

Awwaz thanked the Machsom watch  women who help make life a little easier, especially when the Palestinians have to deal with the authorities in Israel. 

Soldiers and police officers checking the licenses of Palestinian vehicles are standing on Road 35 at the Hebron-Shuyukh junction. On either side of the road are a number of merchants trying to make a few bucks by selling fresh merchandise of vegetables.

We met Suayeb Hamamda from Mufaqara whose tractor was taken from him claiming that he was plowing the land which did not belong to him but  to the State of Israel. (This is a daily event and does not take into consideration international law). He is being summoned to court, and must report to the Kiryat Arba police on December 16.

He has been plowing this land for many years.

  • 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

       

       

      אמבולנס מחכה מול המחסום הסגור באל פוואר
      Yael Zoran
      Jun-18-2026
      An ambulance is waiting in front of the closed checkpoint in El-Fawwar
      View the full album

  • Tarqumiya CP

    See all reports for this place
    • The Tarqumiya Checkpoint is one of the largest and busiest checkpoints where people and goods cross into Israel. It is located on the Separation Barrier close to the Green Line, on Road 35 (connecting Beer Sheva and Hebron). It is run by the Israel Defense Ministry’s Crossings Administration with civilian secuirty companies running the day to day operations. The checkpoint  is indeed open to vehicles in both directions 24/7, but Palestinians are prevented from crossing in vehicles, except in  special cases. MachsomWatch activists visit the checkpoint as it opens at 3:45 am, in order to observe the daily  passage of nearly 10,000 Palestinian workers.  The workers arrive from throughout the Southern West Bank.  Our activists report on the tremendous overcrowding at this checkpoint; they have observed young men climbing and scrambling on the fences and roofs of the ‘access cages’.  This is how the work day begins for those who ‘build the land of Israel’. updated November 2019
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