AN ISRAELI army force on Wednesday demolished a residence and uprooted 100 saplings in Masafer Yatta, in the south of the occupied West Bank.
Local activist Rateb al-Jabour told WAFA that soldiers broke into the Shaab al-Battem area in Masafer Yatta and demolished a home for local resident Othman Jabarin, the second time the Jabarin home has been demolished in one month.
The Palestinian citizens in Masafer Yatta, south of the West Bank city of al-Khalil, live under harsh conditions as most of them dwell in caves due to the denied Israeli construction permits. Since 2000, they have been building cottages and tin structures in addition to small rooms before the Israeli bulldozers demolished them.
As the Israeli occupation forces destroy the Palestinian people’s houses in the area, they resort to living in caves called at-Tur. Despite their continued suffering, the Palestinian families reiterated that they will not abandon their lands in favour of Jewish settlers.
Jamalah ar-Rabei, 59, is a mother of six, two of whom have been detained in Israeli jails since 2020 after they confronted a Jewish settlers’ attack against their house in Twani village. ‘We build our homes on our lands and live there,’ she stressed, adding that their lands are irreplaceable.
For his part, the Palestinian citizen Othman Abu Qabita, 30, who lives in Khirbat al-Esfir, affirmed that their existence in their lands will not be eliminated. ‘I will die, but my sons will live and my grandsons will follow,’ Abu Qabita said.
As of January 2023, most of the residents of Masafer Yatta had received demolition orders and therefore they are at imminent risk to be forcibly expelled.
Their situation deteriorated yet further in May 2022 following a resolution by the Israeli Supreme Court that removed all legal barriers to the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Masafer Yatta to make way for the military zone.
The Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders) organisation condemned the Israeli decision to expel more than 1,000 Palestinian citizens from their homes in the area.
‘This plan would mean the imminent forcible displacement of almost the entire population of Masafer Yatta,’ David Cantero Pérez, Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) head of mission said in a press statement. ‘Where are all these families to go?’ he wondered, stressing that such a plan is ‘completely unacceptable’.
According to the MSF, Israeli authorities have put extraordinary pressure on residents of Masafer Yatta to leave the area.
Not only did they destroy the people’s houses, but they also installed checkpoints, confiscated their vehicles, and enforced curfews and other movement restrictions.
These measures, which have intensified in recent months, have negatively affected the Palestinian citizens’ freedom of movement, mental health, and ability to access basic services, including medical care.
Sick and elderly patients are usually forced to wait for hours at checkpoints and even walk long distances to reach clinics. Their movements are restricted even during medical emergencies. ‘You have to be on the point of dying to be allowed through the checkpoints,’ one of the citizens told MSF staff.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 3,000 Palestinian citizens live in Masafer Yatta.
Palestinian citizens in the 38 communities of the Masafer Yatta suffer from the rundown of services provided in the health and education sectors in addition to the lack of electricity.
In 1999, Israel declared a number of the Masafer Yatta communities ‘firing zones’, posing the risk of forcible expulsion of nearly 700 local citizens.
For decades, Palestinians living in 12 hamlets scattered across the region have witnessed their homes repeatedly demolished. They have also lived under the threat of forced displacement.
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Israeli occupation authorities have used Massafer Yatta with its 30,000 dunums as a firing zone.
The Masafer Yatta area is located near the city of Yatta between 14 and 24 kilometres southeast of al-Khalil Governorate. It is the second largest city in terms of population and area, within an area of 35,000 square kilometres.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers on Wednesday broke into Khillet al-Dabbe area and uprooted 100 olive and almond saplings the residents have planted in the land where the village school was located before it was demolished by the Israeli army two years ago.
On the same day, Israeli settlers attacked schools and homes in a village in the north of the West Bank and slashed car tyres in the south.
Dozens of settlers attacked two schools and homes in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, throwing rocks at them and smashing several windows, according to Ghassan Daghlas, a local official, and fired live bullets at the village residents who confronted them without hurting anyone.
Meanwhile, armed settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba broke into the east of the city of Hebron and slashed the tyres of several vehicles owned by local residents, according to one of the residents.
Israeli settlers set a Palestinian-owned car on fire and attacked commuters on roads in the north of the West Banks.
Ghassan Daghlas, an official, said settlers sneaked into a neighbourhood in the town of Urif, south of the city of Nablus, and set a locally-owned car on fire.
Further north, near the town of Silat al-Dahr, south of Jenin, settlers threw stones at Palestinian commuters near the evacuated settlement of Houmish causing damage to some of them, according to Palestinian security sources.
Students and teachers at Azzoun Atmeh high school, south of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya, on Tuesday complained that settlers in a nearby illegal settlement play music at high volume to disrupt their education.
Ala Marabeh, the headmaster of the high school, told WAFA that settlers from Shaar Tiqva settlement, built on Azzoun Atmeh land, and for the last three days, intentionally play Hebrew songs at high volume as soon as classes start in the morning, which makes it very difficult for the teachers and students to concentrate on their studies.
He said the settlement is located right behind the high school, where 280 students attend classes.
The senior students at the high school are expected to sit this year for the important matriculation exam that allows them to continue higher education.
Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday detained at least 21 Palestinians during various raids across the occupied territories, two of them minors, according to various sources.
In the Bethlehem governorate in the south of the West Bank, the Israeli forces detained six people from Hussan village, west of Bethlehem city, including a 16-year-old boy.
The forces also detained a 44-year-old man from Bethlehem city.
In the Ramallah governorate, soldiers detained a 17-year-old youth from Kufr Malik village, east of Ramallah city, and two others from the town of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah.
In the north of the West Bank, soldiers detained three people from the town of Tel, in the Nablus district, and another from the city itself.
Two siblings were also detained in the city of Tulkarm, three were detained in the Jenin governorate, and one was detained from the town of Bidya, near Salfit.
One Palestinian was also detained in Shufat refugee camp, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) demolished on Wednesday morning a commercial facility in the east Jerusalem town of Shuafat at the pretext of unlicensed construction.
According to local sources, Israeli bulldozers escorted by police forces demolished a car wash belonging to Sadeq Abu Jum’ah near the Shuafat checkpoint.
The Israeli municipality often forces Jerusalemite citizens to carry out demolition orders against their homes at their own expense, or they will face heavy demolition expenses and fines if they refuse to comply.
Meanwhile, the IOA is making preparations to start building thousands of housing units for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
According to Ynet website, the Israeli army’s civil administration will approve a plan for the building of over 7,000 settler homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Thousands of these units will be built outside the main settlement blocks, including 400 in Netiv Ha’avot outpost in the southwest of Bethlehem that was evacuated in 2018.