11 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
On February 23, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raided the village of Jinba, in Masafer Yatta, in the middle of the night. The army forced residents out of their houses and held them on their knees with hands over their heads at gunpoint while the soldiers vandalized their houses and grain storage.
In the following two weeks, the army and illegal settlers have attacked Jinba’s shepherds and their flocks of sheep. The attacks have persisted over several days with the use of tear-gas or drones; on some days, the army approached and brutalized the sheep and threaten shepherds from their land. In some instances, the army have killed livestock.
Jinba has for years been under intense attempts of ethnic cleansing by the occupation force. Since 1980, more than 40 houses in Jinba have been demolished by the IOF.
Jinba is one of the most isolated villages in the firing zone (a closed military area) established by the Israeli occupation in Masafer Yatta, and the area around Jinba is heavily militarized. The IOF has built an army base about one kilometer away and recently constructed an apartheid road through the Palestinian land. The Israeli army and settlers have declared all land around Jinba illegal for the people of Jinba to enter, including for grazing their sheep and harvesting their crops.
The residents told us the soldier often come drunk, after long parties in the military base. During our stay in Jinba, ISM activists were able to hear the loud parties and yelling from the near by base.
Since the 7th of October, the village of Jinba has experienced an increase of settler colonial violence.
Shepherds attacked with tear gas, Jinba. Credit to local residents.
Drone harassing a shepherd and scaring his flock.