South Hebron Hills
There is a general strike in the Palestinian Authority identifying with the hunger strikers. The day of the strike was scheduled for today because of US President Trump’s visit to Israel.
Ramadan begins Saturday night and Palestinian Authority schools have put forward the date of the exams. This is also the harvest season and many children work with their parents in the fields.
The village Surra is between a-Tuwani and Umm Fukara, near the settlement Avigayil. In the early 1990s, its residents were expelled by the army. The place was declared a firing zone and a closed military area.
Now the popular committees of Palestine in cooperation with Palestinians against settlements and local organizations have begun to return to the place. They returned to the original caves and put up a tent and raised the Palestinians flags.
The “Sumud” camp.
The tent.
The tent above the cave.
We came to express solidarity.
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
-