“Masafer Yatta is taking its last breaths.”
—
A cry of desperation and urgent call for action from Sheikh Ragheb Dababseh on behalf of the residents of Khallet al-Dabaa in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, where Israel is escalating its campaign of ethnic cleansing and forcible transfer.

On 1 June, Israeli forces declared the village a closed military zone, expelled residents, journalists, and international supporters, and demanded a list of all local inhabitants. The move follows weeks of violence, including large-scale demolitions in early May, after which settlers began systematically seizing residential caves, vandalizing property, and grazing livestock across Palestinian farmland, all under military protection.

Since the escalated demolitions, residents have been forced to live in tents and caves, while Jewish Israeli settlers roam freely with dogs, rifles, and sheep, harassing families and even assaulting a pregnant woman, who remains hospitalized.

Israeli police and occupation forces have done nothing to remove the settlers. Instead, they detained the Palestinian victims, claiming the land is state-owned and dismissing the caves as “abandoned.”

This latest escalation comes amid a wider Israeli strategy in Masafer Yatta, where photographing homes, population surveys, and banning foreign observers aim to silence documentation and clear the way for Jewish settlement expansion.

Legal appeals to remove the settlers have been rejected by Israeli courts, while new outposts and permanent infrastructure are being established. The village is located in Firing Zone 918, and in 2022, Israel’s High Court approved the eviction of its residents—a ruling now being violently enforced on the ground.

Israel officially designated Masafer Yatta as a closed military training zone in the 1980s. Israel claims Palestinian residents are ‘squatters’ who settled there illegally after the area was designated for military use.

Human rights groups and local residents warn that what is happening in Khallet al-Dabaa is part of a deliberate, state-backed campaign to Judaize the South Hebron Hills, mirroring similar expulsions elsewhere in the West Bank.

Israel has been trying to drive Palestinians out of Masafer Yatta for at least 40 years.

The Cradle Media