On an stuffy summer day, the interior of the houses of the villagers at Ras Ein al-auja felt rot. The villagers said that the day before, the settlers had not – for the first time – cut the power lines between their homes and the electrical networks out of the network that the community had accumulated with the help of humanitarian organizations, causing the food of food in their refrigerators.
The Israeli authorities have long denied access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation to this Palestinian community and others in zone C, and almost all these communities are confronted with demolition orders. Israel generally accuses the Palestinians of building without a license to justify the orders, but it is almost impossible to acquire permits.
The Israeli army did not respond to the request for comments from Tel Aviv Tribune for this article.
According to Ghawanmeh, Israeli settlers from the three surrounding outposts – all established in the past two years – have reduced electricity systems outside the “five or six times a week”.
Last year, the settlers prohibited Bedouins from accessing the Al-auja spring, whose inhabitants depend for their herds and their own water needs. The Palestinian villagers and local reports indicate that the Israeli military forces have enabled the settlers to block access to the spring.
Now, all the land where the Palestinian inhabitants had grazed their herds are prohibited, forcing them to keep their cattle written.
Ibrahim Kaabneh, 35, has only 40 sheep and goats. He had once 250, but he said that he had sold most of his herd after he and a parent were attacked by settlers last year and the settlers stole the herd of his relatives.
“I needed to get money to feed the rest of the herd before dying or stolen by the colonists,” he said in his sparse family home with his children who were quietly looking in summer heat.
The settlers attack them if they bring out their herds and are no longer able to access the source of water and to be refused access to the nearby water pipes linked to the Israeli colonies, Kaabneh must now spend around 200 shekels ($ 60) per fodder day for its animals while paying water tanks every two days.
“Even the cattle we still have, we feel like we are ours,” said Kaabneh. “At any time, they can be stolen. At any time, they can be attacked.”
Kaabneh lives about 200 meters (220 yards) from a second Israeli outpost that was created a year ago. The outpost, containing a corrugated sheet pen, would have stolen in an already near Bedouin community, is an overview of what the outpost will look like as it develops, depending on the inhabitants.
The outpost established in August is even closer to Bedouins living here. This added to the fears among the members of the community who feel “stifled” by encroaching settlers. Since the start of the war in Gaza, the settlers have burned houses in the community and have attacked members of the community, including the Kaabneh uncle, who was struck by a bulldozer. The settlers also come to the dressed village or drunk inappropriately, say the Palestinians.
Kaabneh says that he has trouble sleeping and that he is wary of leaving his home even to make the grocery store because he fears for his family. Women and children avoid leaving their homes for more than an hour or two at a time.
An access route to the community – built with funding from the American agency for international development, as evidenced by a display panel – has now at its entry a series of concrete blocks painted with Israeli flags, and community members are faced with constant harassment to do the most basic shopping.
“Once we get out of the house, it seems that we do something wrong or do something illegal,” said Ghawanmeh. “Children, women and everyone here have a constant fear and constant danger whenever they leave the house for the necessary reason.”
“What we are experiencing right now is a disaster,” he continued. “Going from access to 20,000 duals of land to access nothing and have a free water source not to have it at all, it’s paralyzing.”
