11 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
The damage to a house done from the IOF, Jinba. Credit to local residents.
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.
Damage to grain storage. Credit to local residents.
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.
06 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
A few days ago, villagers of Khallet Adabaa stood at the edge of their village and watched two illegal Israeli settlers driving on motorbikes up and down the hills surrounding the village – all of it private Palestinian land. Earlier in the day, settlers from the same nearby settlement of Mitzpe Yair kidnapped two Palestinian men from Khallet Adabaa. The settlers attacked the two men while they were working on their land, shot at them from a close distance, and took them to their settlement.
Illegal settlers on motorbikes on Palestinian land. @ISM
While the people of Khallet Adabaa waited for the news of the kidnapped men, settlers started to loudly riding adventure dirt bikes around the village over land they had just barred the Palestinians from working on.
Last week armed settlers in self-made military uniforms from the settlement Ha’vot Ma’on near A-Tuwani drove Palestinian shepherds from their lands in Humra. In the afternoon, in full view from the shepherds houses, a jogger crossed their lands from one settlement to another –and later, young settlers undressed and bathed in a Palestinian watering hole.
Settler jogging. @ISM
Settler bathing in a Palestinian watering hole. @ISM
Two weeks ago, settlers from Avigail kidnapped two men from Um Dhorit, and next morning, a settler youth paraded through the nearby villages on a horse.
The occupation forces project of ethnic cleansing and land grab plays out in ways beyond directly violent attacks. It is also enforced through sinister though mundane acts of indirect violence when settlers exploit Palestinian land for everyday activities, made possible by the firearms they carry, and always backed up by military, police force, and Israeli courts and politicians.
Settler youth parading through Palestinian villages. @ISM
1 March 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Kafr Qaduum
Palestinians gather in the village main road. @ISM
It is Friday, and the call to prayer is heard in the rural village of Kafr Qaduum, West of Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. The streets are quiet, empty except some children playing and a few cars heading early to the masjid. Around 11am, some men and boys gather and drink coffee off the main road next door. Younger children play and laugh. The scene appears calm if expectant, with an underlying tension. Like every Friday, after prayer, villagers march in protest of the closure of their village’s main road and against the Israeli Occupation.
Protests are a regular part of life in rural villages across Palestine–some as far back as the second intifada. But in most parts of the West Bank unarmed protest marches left off after October 7th, when soldiers and settlers took advantage of Hamas’ attacks to unleash a wave of violence, terrorism, land and resource theft against their Palestinian neighbors. While before, the military used principally tear gas, sound bombs, and rubber coated steel bullets to disperse protestors, since the 7th villagers of Kafr Qaduum report encountering exclusively live gunfire.
Israeli drone flying over the protestors. @ISM
But protests in Kafr Qaduum never stopped. Abu Masseib, former mayor of the village, proudly states they have marched for the opening of their main road every Friday for 13 years–ever since the Israeli courts refused to uphold their rights. He reports that while military aggression has made protesting more dangerous, the villagers have persisted, adapting their practices to minimize harm. Fewer villagers go out each week, they move cautiously and report back and withdraw quickly if military movements are observed. In spite of these precautions, Masseib reports that the military have caused serious injuries. Since 2011, he states that over 100 villagers have been shot with live ammunition. Over 150 were arrested, he says, for weeks to as long as a year. While none have died, 2 children suffered horrifying brain injuries from “less lethal” rounds to the head. Just last week a youth was shot in the face, but survived when the bullet rebounded into his jaw. Many more villagers have lost eyes or suffered serious injuries to legs or stomach. In a group of 14 Palestinian youths and adults sitting with us, he says “10 of us have been shot with live [ammunition]”.
When asked why he thinks the people of Kafr Qaduum continue to protest when other villages have paused marches, he says, “We had this issue before Oct 7th; we want a free road. We have suffered too much; we understand the Occupation.” Over 50% of the village is in Area C–parts of the West Bank annexed by Israel, made available for Israeli settlement and off limits to Palestinians. This includes most of the villagers’ olive trees, their primary agricultural production and of immense symbolic value. “It hurts all the people of the village,” Abu Maseib says.
Today the military presence is mostly hidden. A low flying drone watches overhead, and four soldiers’ helmets and hair peek out over the closest hill. The protest moves conservatively, quietly, without shouted slogans or flung stones. Still the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance and media are ready to respond and document military aggression. The protest ends abruptly when report comes of military movements, and we — the only internationals present–are shuttled safely out of town before anything escalates.
The illegal Israeli settlement just outside Kafr Qaduum. @ISM
It is hard to guess whether solidarity activist presence acts as a deterrent these days. Indeed, organizer Murad Shtaiwi reports there haven’t been other solidarity activists present since October 7th. Villagers worry about exposing outsiders to the level of violence they themselves experience on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. Murad reports that much of the violence occurs during the week, when soldiers enter the village to damage property, arrest protestors identified in drone photos, or just fire guns indiscriminately. He shares a phone video that clearly shows soldiers firing their weapons at head height and up into residential buildings. These are not shots intended only to frighten or disperse, but to injure and kill.
Before solidarity activists are driven away, everyone walks together back to the relative safety of home. Murad affirms that this is good timing. “It is an honor,” he says, “for us to have martyrs; but it is a greater honor to have living children”.
27 February 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
Occupation forces and settler harassing Palestinians. @ISM
On February 25th, armed illegal Israeli settlers and border police approached and violently argued with Palestinian shepherds in Al-Rakeez, Masafer Yatta, driving them away from their land.
Two Palestinian shepherds were grazing their flocks at the top of a hill, where they have been recently told by Israeli occupation forces they are allowed to stay. About thirty minutes after the shepherds started grazing, one settler in civilian clothes and wearing a machine gun approached them. Amichai – the settler- lives in a close by settlement called Abigail and he has harassed Palestinian shepherds and families living in the area in the past.
He aggressively spoke with one of the shepherds, claiming that they are not allowed to be there. Few minutes later, three settlers in military clothes showed up, escorted by three border policemen. They all intimidated the shepherds and the activists present on the scene to step back, saying that they cannot be closer than 500 meters to the top of the hill, which included almost the entire valley. They refused to show any map or evidence, even when asked, as a testament of their abuse of power and their illegal actions, especially during times of war.
Amichai, one of the illegal settlers from the settlement Abigail. @ISM
They left after they pushed back the shepherds.
The area of Masafer Yatta, as other areas as in the West Bank, suffers from the Israeli massive ethnic cleansing project which has massively accelerated since last October. Al-Rakeez is one of the 14 communities which was at risk of forcible transfer due to the establishment by the Israeli occupation of the military zone 918, but shepherds were still able to graze in the surrounding area. One month ago, exploiting wartime, the area was sealed off and the access to the road leading to the valley was closed.
In this area, villages are being teared apart increasingly. It has become impossible, or at least very dangerous, being in the land and also walking from one village to another even though they are only a few hundred meters away from each other.
Israel’s ethnic cleansing project is being lead jointly via an expansion of illegal outposts and settlements over more Palestinian land, and by armed settlers – who nowadays are mostly in army uniform – threatening and pushing Palestinians from their homes and land and prohibiting them to shepherd. Settlers, together with the Israeli army and civil administration, have blocked roads and sealed off villages, invaded houses, destroyed private property, threatened Palestinians they will kill them all if they do not leave.
Since the beginning of the genocidal attack on Gaza, 16 Palestinian communities have been forced to leave their villages in the West Bank.
The settler and occupation forces on the hill. @ISM
24 February 2024 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta
Settlers/ army harassing Palestinian shepherd. @ISM
On Wednesday, February 21st, a group of armed and masked settlers and occupation army soldiers violently attacked a group of Palestinian women, children and men grazing their sheep in Humra close to A-Tuwani, in Masafer Yatta.
The soldiers aggressively drove the shepherds out of their land, while continuously shouting and threatening them, at one point by running after one of the shepherds with a pointed machine gun.
At the edge of Humra, the settler and army soldiers detained one of the shepherds and two international solidarity activists present while driving the shepherds and their sheep down into their village and completely cut them off from any grazing land.
After calling for backup, two jeeps with more army and settler soldiers and border police officers arrived. They all worked closely together, making it challenging to differentiate between settlers and regular army. The border police were clearly intimidated by the settlers and took orders from them stating that “we are all working for the same”.
After extensive verbal harassment of the detained shepherd and international activists, and violent attempts to block the internationals from documenting the episode, the soldiers and border police retrieved, and everyone was let go.
Afterwards the shepherds called the police because two days prior the police had told them that they could graze in Humra. However, the settlers and army had kept harassing them everyday while grazing, finally escalating once again on this day.
For several days after, the shepherds have been prevented from grazing in the land, loosing invaluable grazing time to sustain their livestock.
Humra is part of an area recognised by the state as private Palestinian land. For the last couple of years, it has even been closed off by the high military commander of the West Bank meaning that only Palestinians legally can be present there.
But even though it’s a felony for Israelis to be present in the area, to sorbets or even to pass, settlers have been shepherding there have had no consequences, except when the police now and then would tell them to leave after being alerted, only to return again.
After the 7th of October, the situation has changed drastically, as the settlers and army again and again use excessive force to deny the Palestinian shepherds access to their land, using the tactic of declaring the area a closed military zone, with dire consequences for their livelihoods.
This is one of numerous examples of how the occupation force drive Palestinians out of their land.
