Ramallah- In Khirbet Zanota, in the far south of the West Bank, about 40 Palestinian families lived in their caves the life of their fathers and grandfathers, and used cultivating the land and raising livestock as a source of livelihood, but the calm and tranquility that the fathers and grandfathers enjoyed, turned into anxiety, fear and terror with the presence of settlers at the present time.
In late October 2023, the Palestinian Al-Tal family from the town of Al-Dhahiriya in the south of the West Bank, and the rest of the families, consisting of about 250 individuals, were forced to leave Al-Khirbet for the nearby town of Al-Dhahiriya, in search of a safer place.
The reason was the settlers’ continuous attack day and night on Khirbet and its residents, destroying their property, assaulting them, and confiscating their livestock, with the aim of pushing them to leave, which will open their appetite to seize about 20 thousand dunams (a dunam is equal to a thousand square meters) of land, according to what the young man Adel said. Al-Tal, a resident of Khirbet, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net.
Settlers under the protection of the Israeli police steal sheep from Zanuta, south of Hebron pic.twitter.com/YWdLdsI3u6
– Tel Aviv Tribune Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) September 9, 2024
Pushing towards displacement
Al-Tal explains that with the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the settlers began “to take out their grudges on the residents of the community, using beatings, abuse, and even destruction that affected homes and a basic school in the community.”
The residents did not surrender to the reality of displacement, so they fought a legal battle in the occupation courts, which ended with a decision to return them to their homes, which is what happened on August 21, so they returned, but the occupation authorities stipulated that they should not repair any building that the settlers had destroyed in their absence.
The joy did not last long, as the settlers resumed their attacks and incursions into the gathering, and in the last of them, the army participated in protecting a settler who had stolen a ewe from a flock belonging to the citizen Muhammad Al-Battat. Not only that, but the owner of the herd was also arrested. Adel Al-Tal told Al-Jazeera Net that the renewed attacks paid half the price. Families have to leave and emigrate again.
What happened in Khirbet Zanota affected at least 28 Palestinian communities in the West Bank, inhabited by 311 families, according to data from the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission until September 5, 2024.
According to the Commission, “the forced displacement of Bedouin communities still carries a dangerous significance, given the methodology adopted by the occupying state in imposing a coercive, repellent environment on these communities, represented by intimidation, intimidation, and threats, in addition to the deprivation of grazing, water sources, and services.”
The Commission indicates that since the beginning of the current year, settlers have carried out approximately 1,944 attacks, which led to the martyrdom of 9 citizens in various areas of the Palestinian territories, and 32% of these attacks targeted Bedouin communities stationed in the eastern foothills and the Palestinian Jordan Valley. As for the 7th of October 2023, The number of martyrs killed by settlers’ bullets reached 19, most of them from the northern areas of the West Bank.
Different forms of displacement
With the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the occupation army expanded its operations in the West Bank, while the settlers escalated their attacks, forming a massive wave of displacement of Palestinians that affected about 4,450 people, according to data published by the United Nations.
There are many direct and indirect means of pressure towards displacement, according to monitoring by local human rights institutions and official Palestinian and international bodies, including:
- Repeated settler attacks on isolated Palestinian communities in Area C under Israeli control, forcing their residents to leave.
- Expanding the prosecution of Palestinian construction in Area C.
- Destruction of homes during repeated incursions, especially in the northern West Bank.
- Accelerating the punitive demolition of the families of those who carried out operations against the occupation.
According to United Nations data, between October 7, 2023 and September 23, 2024, the occupation authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced their owners to demolish 1,725 Palestinian facilities throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
These demolitions, according to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Territories, led to the displacement of more than 4,450 Palestinians, including about 1,875 children. The same source reports that the number of displaced people more than doubled compared to the same period before October 7. October 2023, when 1,375 Palestinians were displaced, including 642 children.
Widespread destruction
Regarding the nature of the demolitions, UN data indicate that about 770 facilities were inhabited, and that more than 365 agricultural facilities were demolished, more than 120 water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and 250 facilities used by their owners to secure their livelihoods.
Data indicated that 28 demolition and destruction incidents affected infrastructure, most of them in Tulkarm and Jenin, where the structure of water, sewage, and electricity networks was repeatedly damaged in those areas during Israeli operations, affecting entire neighborhoods and beyond.
As for settler attacks during the same period, the UN office said that 277 Palestinian families, including 1,628 individuals, were displaced, including 794 children, in the context of events related to Israeli settlers.
He added that approximately 1,390 attacks were launched by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, of which approximately 135 attacks resulted in deaths and injuries among Palestinians, and approximately 1,110 attacks resulted in damage to Palestinian property.
The Israeli operations in the cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and Tubas constituted a direct cause of displacement, but there are no accurate Palestinian statistics on the results of the demolition operations resulting from the repeated incursions into the two governorates, including the camps. As soon as the competent authorities begin to count the losses, the occupation army resumes the incursion.
However, according to the United Nations, at least 245 Palestinian families – including 984 individuals – are still displaced, and about 3,000 housing units have been damaged, including 164 units that have become uninhabitable.
Residents whose homes were demolished are forced to search for alternative shelter, either by renting or living with their relatives in areas not covered by the occupation army’s operations, which have been continuing for more than a year by storming camps in the northern West Bank and targeting infrastructure and facilities with heavy bulldozers.
