Waiting for the sunrise in Susiya: messages from Masafer Yatta

This is a story based on texts exchanged over recent days with an international activist part of a group staying in Masafer Yatta, in occupied Palestine.

They arrived recently in Susiya and they are staying in a homestead which is some distance away from other families living in the area.

About 40 families with 100 people in total live in Susiya spread out over an area of 3km2 (3000 dunum).

I asked her what was going on and she wrote: ‘In Susiya nobody is now able to go out and get food because the roads are closed and if people leave, the settlers will attack. So the Israeli activists have started bringing food parcels.’

As in other villages, inhabitants cannot take animals to pasture and extra food has to be brought in to feed the flock. She sent me a picture of a woman form the host family doing exactly that, as we spoke.

‘Can’t take the sheep out because army and settlers restrict the people to a small area and the settlements are too near. It is not a ‘formal rule’ but the settlers have taken law into their own hands and if people take their sheep outside the narrow area around their homes, settlers will attack. They have done it here. They have beaten our host and his brother who came to visit from Yatta. Army comes while the setters are attacking but they just stand around and do nothing.’

‘We are very close to a dangerous settler road, it is 200 -300 meters away’, she said. I asked her to send me a picture of the road and she responded with the smiley and ‘Do you want me to get killed?’. She sent me a picture and explained ‘We were asked not to go on the road. There are two soldiers watching, so I better not go any closer. Palestinians are now not allowed on this road at all and again, that is the rule the settlers have created and they are enforcing it by beating up people. ’

I asked if settlers were coming to their hosts’ homestead and she responded that both settlers and the soldiers go nearby constantly.

They don’t seem to come on the property when foreign or Israeli activists are around, but one can never be sure.

This morning my friend wrote at 5am and I asked what she was doing up that early. ‘Watching sun rising above Susiya’, she said with a smiley. ‘A woman we are staying with looks at me with haggard face and swollen eyes and says “I haven’t slept since the war started”, so we decided to stay awake overnight in shifts so that the family could get some sleep.’

The family sent their two little girls to stay with relatives in Yatta to keep them safe.

This morning my friend was just finishing her ‘night guard shift’ and was looking forward to a hot taboon bread the hostess was to make and the food brought by the Israeli activists. She sent me the picture of the woman carrying a tray with dough to the taboon oven.

‘The night was OK, I think… a guy checked the place out from a distance at 3am and there were no problems. Haven’t heard bad news from other international teams. From across the valley, they kept an eye on us, to ensure we didn’t stray out of the patch of ground they have decreed is all the pasture this family is entitled to’, and she added ‘I think there are more watchers than sheep’.

One day in Masafer Yatta

2 November 2023 | Masafer Yatta| International Solidarity Movement

The testimony from a volunteer in Masafer Yatta, October 28.

 

One day in the life of …

… three villages in the South Hebron Hills ; Tuwani, Shi’b Al Batin and Khalet Al Dabaa.

Villages that I’ve come to know over the past fortnight and where events on just one day last week (Wednesday) showed the brutality and lawlessness of the occupation.

Next to Tuwani village, where I’m based, is the illegal settlement of Maon and its “outpost” of Havat Maon. Built on stolen village land, it has some of the most extreme “ideological” and violent settlers in the area.

On the Wednesday morning, a bulldozer accompanied by a heavily armed settler and three Israeli soldiers, trashed land belonging to the Huraini’s family. The family’s vegetable plot and fruit trees destroyed on a vindictive settler’s whim.

When we tried to get close to film and document what was happening, the settler and soldiers fired warning shots of live ammo at us. And made it clear we would be shot for real if we did not back off.

Around 10km away, the small village of Shi’ib Al Batin is threatened by the same settlement. During the day, an isolated homestead was attacked by settlers who ransacked the house, trashed the domestic and irrigation water systems (and poisoned the well), destroyed crops and stole anything of value.

They also fired a live bullet. This came with the message move out or this is for you.  Not an idle threat, the family has been forced to leave. Their land will soon be taken over by the settlers.

On the Wednesday evening, just after dark, the village itself was raided by the army. I was there with a solidarity comrade and, along with the senior men in the village, we were forced by aggressive soldiers to kneel at gunpoint, hands on head for an hour or so.

The sole purpose of this – which happens on a regular basis – is to intimidate and harass. All part of the coordinated effort to forcibly displace the Palestinian population.

In a remote but beautiful hilltop location looking to the Jordan Valley and the 1949 Green Line is the village of Khalet Al Dabaa. It also has some of the best political murals I’ve ever seen.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, attacks on the village by settlers have become more frequent and violent with Israeli soldiers taking a leading role in the violence.

The attack which took place on Wednesday resulted in two village men being hospitalized, children traumatized, essential infrastructure trashed and valuable equipment stolen.

This is just a snapshot from one day, in three villages. It is happening every day and all thirty villages in the South Hebron Hills are being terrorized.

Israeli crimes around the clock in the West Bank

 

22 October 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Zawata

by Diana Khwaelid

Zawata town-Nablus.

On the evening of Sunday, 22-10-2023, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the town of Zawata, northwest of the city of Nablus. The residents of the town initially spotted Israeli special forces near the town’s cemetery.

The Israeli occupation forces carried out a campaign of arrests against Palestinian youths in the village. Young palestinians of the town came out to confront the occupation forces.  Jihad Mazen Sobhi Saleh (29 years old) and  Muhammad Qasim Abu Zar (17 years old), were martyred after being exposed to direct fire by the IOF. The two young men were transferred to the nearest hospital. One of them was admitted to the operating room but did not survive. The two martyrs were killed in cold blood.

Ahmad Zawatiah, an eyewitness to the Israeli occupation’s crime against the Palestinian youths, said that the Israeli soldiers stormed the town and started shooting directly at the youths without there being an armed clash between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians.

The raid also resulted in the arrest of two Palestinian youths, Dia Abu Amsha and Amir Abu Amsha, both from the town of Zawata.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the town participated in the funeral of the bodies of the two martyrs, who were given one last farewell by their families and friends.

 

The crowd chanted phrases expressing Palestinian patriotism, in a state of anger and sadness, at the continuation of Israeli crimes in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza.

As Gaza suffers from the criminal bombing campaign of the IOF, Palestinians in the West Bank are facing continuous Israeli colonial crimes, with IOF raids and settler pogroms intensifying in frequency and severity. Since the start of the war on Gaza, more than 90 Palestinians have been martyred, and more than 1,200 have been arrested in the West Bank.

Colonial repression accelerates in Jordan Valley

 

Military checkpoint in the Jordan Valley.

17 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Jordan Valley

Tuesday 17 Oct, an update from the Jordan Valley:
Since Israel waged war on Gaza, on October 7, the situation in the Jordan Valley has deteriorated dramatically.
Military checkpoints are often completely closed, and movements in and out of the Jordan Valley are severely limited. West Bank citizens who are not residents of the Jordan Valley are identified and can be forbidden to enter certain areas or villages in the Jordan Valley. While residents of the Jordan Valley are hindered from moving.
There is also limited gasoline or diesel available and any solidarity activity is prohibited. There was an activity in Khirbet Atuf in the northern Jordan Valley, which was responded to by the occupation army forces with live fire, resulting in the martyrdom of the young man Muhammad Ahmad Bsharat, and more than 20 injuries.
Residents of the Jordan Valley and Bedouin communities are also prohibited from moving after 5 p.m.
There are more than 10 communities and villages that cannot obtain water due to closures and the water deprivation policy.
Israeli settlers also took advantage of the support from Minister Ben Gvir and the state of emergency and began to displace Palestinian citizens.

Queues at military checkpoint, Jordan Valley. Credit to Jordan Valley activists.

Several families in Bedouin communities were displaced, threatened by armed settlers. The settlers attacked, intimidated and destroyed the private property of residents in the Jordan Valley and confiscated some lands.

The situation is difficult, and the communities realize that they need to struggle for survival during this ongoing war against the Bedouins and pastoral communities, also being waged taking advantage of the state of emergency and the continuous crimes against children and civilians in Gaza.

Israeli snipers target civilians, kill father of 3-year-old in Tulkarm

 

13 October, 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Tulkarm

By Diana Khwaelid

On the evening of Friday, October 13th, 2023, Israeli snipers opened direct live fire on a white civilian car while it was passing near the Sanaoz military checkpoint, in Tulkarm city.
Ahmed Abed, who was one of the two passengers in the vehicle, said that Israeli snipers on the tower opened fire on the car as they were on their way to the gas station to fill up on fuel. Ahmed was hit by four live bullets in the back and shoulder area, but was lucky to survive, he said.

Rami Hassan, 33, from the village of Arta, husband and father of a 3-year-old girl, Abe, was mortally wounded by several bullets that penetrated his body. His condition was initially described as serious. Rami did not withstand the wounds and died 8 hours after the shooting. Rami worked in a blacksmith shop and as a government employee in the municipality of Tulkarm to support his family.

 

The wounded and witness to the incident, Ahmed, said that they were about 500 meters away from the miltary checkpoint and they did not pose a danger to the Israeli occupation forces, as they were not near a military area and did not cross the border. Nevertheless, they were surprised by direct live fire on them.

He added that the Israeli occupation forces directly targeted them knowing that they were civilians, and that the snipers clearly intended on killing them. No warning shots were fired. Ahmed said he survived miraculously.

The National Action factions in the city of Tulkarem mourned the martyr Rami Hassan, dozens of Palestinians participated in his funeral, and he was given a farewell look by his family and friends. Palestinian demonstrators chanted patriotic phrases expressing anger and sadness at the continuation of the Israeli occupation forces targeting Palestinian civilians.