Settlers injure a boy in the head in Ras Wadi Jirfan in Masafer Bani Naim
We went to the village of Ras Wadi Jirfan because of a phone call from a man named Adel Bahayes. The place is in Masafer Bani Naim. It is a desert area, part of the Judean Desert. We ere already in an area called Mitzpe Midrag, from which you can see the abandoned building of the Umm Daraj police station, where a man named Yoav Etzion settled and also built a viewpoint Maoz Moral, in memory of his friend who fell in the army.
Adel is in the deserted area almost alone and has built a farm to grow prickly pears, 10 dunams, and is trying to develop different varieties of them. He says that the settlers, who are very visible from a distance, came to his plot at night two weeks ago. His son ran to them and was severely beaten. When he arrived, he saw them running away. He took his son home, but since they were far from any settlement, even Palestinian ambulances did not want to come. He treated his son, who was unconscious, all night long. And in the morning, they took him to a hospital in Bani Naim, and from there they transferred him to a hospital in Hebron. He showed us pictures of the son’s head after the beatings, harsh and shocking pictures that we could hardly look at . Even today, when we arrived, the son went to continue treatment in Hebron.
In the vastness of the desert and the sparse population there, I don’t understand why such a family bothers the Israeli authorities.
Location Description
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
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