South Hebron, AM
South Hebron, Wednesday 21.7.04, AM Watchers: Leah Y., Hagit B., (hebrew reporting) Zafrira A., (English reporting) We left Tsomet Shoket at 7.00 a.m. and returned at 10.30a.m. Road 60. New earth barriers along the margins. Obsrevation posts are manned. Some of the inner roads have been resurfaced, but there is very little movement of either pedestrians or vehicles on the permitted roads. There were however, many military vehicles of various kinds. A “flying checkpoint” at the junction of 60 with 356 with 5 soldiers stopping Palestinian vehicles and checking their papers – 10 to 15 minutes stop for each car. The ‘New” barrier after Zif junction is not manned.We met two representatives of TIPH -Temporary International Presence in Hebron – on the Halhul-Hebron bridge. They reported that Hebron is quiet, but quiet before the storm – all are waiting to see what will happen when the Wall reaches this area. An road 317, a bulldozer is widening the road for the benefit of the occupation settlers only. The water situation in Hirbet Tuwaini and Susiya We met with S. the mukhtar and helped him to contact CDO. The village will receive 10 cubic M. of water every alternate day by army tanker from Yatta. The poisoned well [resorvoire] contained 150 cubes of water and the army has promised to supply this amount. The resorvoire cannot be cleaned until the experts have decided how to get rid of the poisoned water and how to clean the well before the winter rains. H. is in daily contact with CDO to make sure that they carry out their responsibility. We met the volunteers of Ta’ayush, who are running a summer camp for the children of the villages – happy children and a nice atmosphere. We were followed all the way by a police jeep. We drove to Susiya with N. one of the residents to see their wells which they are not allowed to use, as the settlers need the water for their sheep. There are three wells in the area between the roads leading on one side to the army camp and the settlers and on the othere side to the archeological site. N. also pointed to the fields belonging to their village which they are no longer allowed to plough or use for grazing for their flocks. We need to confirm if this is really the case.
Halhul-Hebron Bridge
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Generally allows free flowing traffic, except for sudden checks by soldiers stationed permanently in the pillbox, on Route 35 in the southern West Bank.
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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
Raya YeorDec-18-2025Hebron - Yusri Jaber and part of his family
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Susiya
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Susiya The Palestinian area lies between the settlement of Susya and a military base. The residents began to settle in areas outside the villages in the 1830s and lived in caves, tents and sukkot. To this day they maintain a traditional lifestyle and their livelihood is based on agriculture and herding. Until the 1948 war, the farmers cultivated areas that extended to the Arad area. As a result of the war, a significant portion of their land left on the Israeli side was lost. After the 1967 war and the Israeli occupation, military camps were established in the area, fire zones and nature reserves were declared, and the land area was further reduced. The Jewish settlement in Susya began in 1979. Since then, there has been a stubborn struggle to remove the remains of Palestinian residents who refuse to leave their place of birth and move to nearby town Yatta. With the development of a tourist site in Khirbet Susya in the late 1980s (an ancient synagogue), dozens of families living in caves in its vicinity were deported. In the second half of the 1990s, a new form of settlement developed in the area - shepherds' farms of individual settlers. This phenomenon increased the tension between the settlers and the original, Palestinian residents, and led to repeated harassment of the residents of the farms towards the Palestinians. At the same time, demolition of buildings and crop destruction by security forces continued, as well as water and electricity prevention. In the Palestinian Susya, as in a large part of the villages of the southern Hebron Mountains, there is no running water, but the water pipe that supplies water to the Susya Jewish settlement passes through it. Palestinians have to buy expensive water that comes in tankers. Solar electricity is provided by a collector system, installed with donation funds. But the frequent demolitions in the villages do not spare water cisterns or the solar panels and power poles designed to transfer solar electricity between the villages. Updated April 2021, Anat T.
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Zif Junction
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Zif Junction located on the crossroads that directs towards Road 356 to Yata. Yata is the district city of the southern Hebron Mountains. Usually, this junction is open to traffic. The nearby pillbox is unmanned. But the army and police are present occasionally, sometimes setting up a checkpoint and sometimes detaining residents from the big city. Often, the Israeli policemen inspect vehicles and distribute driving reports to Palestinian vehicles. s
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