Rahwa: With no demolition order, everything was destroyed six weeks ago

This time the shift was dedicated to a place named Rahwa, if you can call a pile of rubble, tin shacks and a cave dwelling a place.

First, as with all visits since 7.10, we were at the supermarket in Hura and bought groceries thanks to your donations for the family of 20 people. The owner of this supermarket is extremely generous and always donates extra groceries for us. At the vegetable store they always respond to our requests as well, and add vegetables and fruits that are always available as you know.

Rahwa
The Abu Sharh family lives in the valley at the foot of the Mitzpe Eshtamoa outpost. Next to it, to their east is the Mor farm, (the settler's name is Shabtai) which was built in recent years, and to their northwest and the old settlement of Tene Omarim.

As a general rule, you drive fifteen minutes from the Meitar checkpoint and then manage to maneuver on to a bumpy "non-road"  thanks to the 4×4. We ascended along the ruins and went a little up the hill where they settled in the cave and the shacks after the destruction that was done to them on 6.6.

Ibthisam (smile), the often smiling grandmother and her husband welcome us. Her daughter in law, who luckily has an Israeli identity card, went with the babies to get vaccinations and other errands in Rahat (a Beduin town near Beer Sheva). She was the one who called and asked us to come because they are in a dire situation.

Ibtisam says that 4 months ago the IDF came and said, without presenting a demolition order, that it must to be demolished. A month and a half ago they came and destroyed everything. Even the Samneh (homemade ghee) in the big bucket was spilled and all the groceries that Samdar had brought them two days before were destroyed. A purse that had 2000 NIS in it was found discarded and empty. She says there were also two female soldiers. One agreed to her request not to spill the Samneh and Labne, then the other female soldier came, roughly pulling her by the hand as she spilled everything. She also added: "Go to Dahariya" and added rude words in Arabic that had long since been adopted by Israelis.

So now there are about 20 people living in the cave. There is another shower tin shack and a relatively pleasant toilet that was donated at the time by Rose the famous Englishwoman who founded the weaving group in Lakiya when she was married to a Bedouin. Rose has long since left, but her donation is still used by the Abu Sharh family. It is lucky that these were not destroyed. It is important to add that the stream called Nahal Beer Sheva flows nearby with ghastly colors and a stench that is hard to bear. No authority takes care of it, and this is where they live and that is the air they breathe.

 In the attached photos you can see where they are and how they live.

As we left there, I received a call from Tawfiq from Khursa, the village in the heart of which a pillbox was established that monitors the road to the two settlements, Negohot A and B.  We've written about it quite a bit.

But Tawfiq was shaken: "Okay, we've gotten used to life with surprise roadblocks and all that implies, and the presence of soldiers in the heart of the village. But now there are soldiers and reservists from a unit, and they behave violently and threaten all the time and conduct searches all the time in a more serious way than it was until now. "One of our people was injured and taken to the hospital," he says, and adds: "And we, whose shops are located along this road and next to the pillbox, stay close to guard them even though there is no business, because we are simply afraid to leave them only with our young people."

He further describes a worsening of the authorities' behavior towards them, as the settlers' lives and routine of the traveling back and forth there remain as they were.

I promise Tawfiq we will come next Tuesday.