South Hebron Hills
We began our day at Um Faqara, a tiny hamlet – several modest homes among the rock, their construction not completed, people also living in caves. No running water, meager electric power provided by solar heat and a generator. We sat for a while with H. and chatted. She told us that several days after Jum’a was assaulted at Al-Tuwane, Jewish settler-colonsits attacked another inhabitant of Al-Tuwane, running over his leg with a mini tractor. Consequently, after meeting her we addressed members of the Italian Operation Dove at Al-Tuwane.
One of the organization members was at the assault site a bit over a week ago, and this is what she told us:
She had been at Sa’arura with some youngsters from Al-Tuwane, working. They were located low in the ravine. A settler-colonist passed above on his mini-tractor. In his first round he yelled at the Palestinians who yelled back at him. He drove on and disappeared. Later he returned with a friend and a sack of stones on his mini-tractor. They began to hurl stones at the Palestinian and the Italian volunteer below. The difference in altitude and the colonists’ speedy drive made the stones fly much faster and endanger whoever was below inside the ravine, who began to escape uphill in two opposite directions. The volunteer photographed the mini-tractor in her phone video, which made them colonists change direction and drive towards the Palestinians. Reaching them, they ran over one of them, S., and fractured his calf in two places. Then they drove off to Abigail settler-colony.
The volunteer and other youngsters approached the victim and realized he would not be able to walk, so they summoned an ambulance that arrived after 30 minutes.
The victim, like Jum’a, was operated on in Hebron, where his leg was stabilized with metal pins. He has been released in the meantime, and today drove traveled with Jum’a to the hospital for a checkup. Considering his young age, 20, he is expected to recover faster than Jum’a, and be able to walk within a month’s time.
The settler-colonists wore helmets and thus were not identified. But the volunteer (Giulia) passed her video with the mini-tractor’s license plate number to the police. Since then she has already seen settler-colonists on mini-tractors on the dirt track between Chavat Maon and Abigail – which passes through three Palestinian villages =cover their license plates.
Likewise, since the event many Israeli soldiers and Border Policemen have been seen in the area, declaring the village of Al-Tuwane itself as a closed military zone, as if to prevent clashes between the Palestinian villagers and the Jewish settler-colonists. Five army jeeps (yesterday?) did not allow people to exit the village at night. There are also army patrols at night.
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.May-5-2026Daphna with Basel in A-Tוwani
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