Israeli settlers assault Palestinian, damage crops south of Hebron

Israeli settlers today assaulted a Palestinian and damaged crops in Tuba and al-Mafqara villages, east of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, according to a local activist.

Rateb Jabour, an anti-occupation activist, said that a group of fundamentalist settlers attacked residents of the two southern West Bank communities, inflicting cuts and bruises across a resident’s body.

The health condition of the casualty was described as moderate.

The assailants came from the religiously fundamentalist colonial settlements of Maon and Havat Maon.

Meanwhile, another group of settlers grazed their cattle on wheat and barely crops belonfing to farmers identified as members of the Abu Eram and Hamamdeh families in Qawawis area, sabotaging the crops.

Tubas and Khirbet al-Mafqara are two of 12 Palestinian communities making up Masafer Yatta.

On May 4, 2022, Israel’s top court gave the army the green light to forcibly expel some 1,300 Palestinians living in the villages or hamlets making up the Masafer Yatta area, which relies heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood, marking one of the largest expulsions carried out by the State of Israel in recent decades.

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.

Source: Palestine news & Information Agency