RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Hebron, 02 February 2022. Israeli forces raze four water wells in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the southern West Bank.


0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Fouad Al-Amour, coordinator of the Committee for the Protection and Resilience of the South Hebron Mountains.

STORYLINE:

Coordinator of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Committees, Rateb al-Jabour, said that Israeli forces used a bulldozer to destroy the water wells, which belong to the Hamamda, Dababsa and al-‘Amour families, in Khallet Ad-Dabi‘, one of the hamlets making up Masafer Yatta.

He pointed that the wells destruction was a part of a large campaign aimed at seizing some 400 donums in Khallet Ad-Dabi‘ to make room for colonial settlement construction.

Masafer Yatta is a collection of almost 19 hamlets which rely heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood.

Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living - livestock.

It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since 1980s and accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.

Israeli violations against the area include demolition of animal barns, homes and residential structures. Issuance of construction permits by Israel to local Palestinians in the area is non-existent.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in colonial settlements across the West Bank building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Footage by/APAwire