Zanuta, occupied West Bank – When Zanuta villagers fled their homes last year, driven out by attacks by Israeli settlers, they took their keys with them.
During the nearly 300 days they spent in tents in al-Dhaheriya, about 30 kilometers away, they kept their keys, hoping to return home.
On August 21, after a legal battle, some villagers returned. But their keys were of no use. Instead, the sight that greeted them was a reminder of the precarious nature of life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, particularly in areas under direct Israeli control.
“When we came back, we thought we would be happy,” said Muhammed al-Tal, a 23-year-old villager whose family has lived in Zanuta for generations. “But we were shocked by the sight of houses being demolished and burned and by the devastation everywhere. »
“We had the keys to our houses and they remained for us a sign of hope, that of our return,” he said. “We were able to return, but we found neither houses nor doors for the keys we were taking. »
Forced out
Zanuta is about 20 km south of Hebron and was home to around 40 families, or around 250 people, before the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October last year, during which Israel killed more than 42 000 Palestinians.
This was a community focused on animal husbandry, an ancient and common way of life for Palestinian residents of this part of the West Bank.
But the village and its lands have been invaded by illegal Israeli settlements for years.
The abandonment of Zanuta was triggered by attacks by violent settlers living in neighboring settlements, notably Shim’a, to the east.
These attacks preceded the Gaza War, but the conflict provided cover for an increase in settler attacks across the West Bank, several of which resulted in the deaths of Palestinians.
In Zanuta, the settlers were particularly cruel. Muhammed described the “roar of bullets and brutal attacks” that began on October 7, the day the Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,139 people were killed.
By the end of October, Muhammed and the rest of the Zanuta residents were gone, forcibly displaced.
“They came secretly at night while we slept,” said Abdelaziz al-Tal, 53, a member of Muhammed’s extended family. “The settlers used the pretext of the war in Gaza to dramatically intensify their attacks until they affected every aspect of the lives of Palestinians inside the village. They spared no house from demolition and vandalism, not a school, not even a lamp post.
When the villagers returned to Zanuta in August, Abdelaziz was in what was once his home.
“Here’s the kitchen,” he said, standing in the corner of the now-demolished structure. Abdelaziz spoke of his family’s life in the house, where his wife prepared food and his children slept.
The reconstruction
Abdelaziz wants to rebuild his house before winter arrives. But even though the Israeli court allowed them to return, they were not given explicit permission to rebuild and continued to face harassment from settlers while Israeli forces remained on the sidelines.
The villagers’ lawyer, Qamar Mashreqi, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the villagers’ right to rebuild their homes had been delayed because it was unclear whether the July Israeli court order had stated that the villagers had permission to rebuild their homes, or whether it would simply allow them to physically return.
Mashreqi said efforts were underway to obtain an order clearly allowing villagers to rebuild what the settlers had destroyed.
Further complicating matters is Zanuta’s presence in Masafer Yatta, an area in the southern West Bank where around 2,500 Palestinians live.
The residents of Masafer Yatta have been engaged in a years-long battle with the Israeli army, which unilaterally declared the area a closed military “firing zone” for training purposes in the 1980s. The Palestinians of Masafer Yatta have been expelled by Israel in 1999 under the false pretext that they were living there illegally, despite their presence in the region before Israel’s illegal occupation in 1967.
The evicted residents were allowed to return a few months later, following a temporary injunction, but they regularly faced house demolitions, even before October 7.
Building permits are notoriously difficult to obtain for Palestinians living in Area C of the West Bank – under full Israeli control – and the lack of permits is often used as a pretext for demolitions.
Fiez al-Tal, the head of the Zanuta village council, explained that the lack of permits for the buildings was one of the reasons why it was necessary to obtain a clearer order from the Israeli court to remove the main obstacle preventing villagers from rebuilding their homes.
“The Israelis stopped the people of Zanuta from doing anything,” Fagé said, commenting on the situation after the villager’s return in August. “(They only allowed us) to be on the land without building, restoring or even providing the necessary food for the animals.”
“Released but destroyed”
Zanuta villagers have found some support from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the representative of the Palestinian people recognized by the United Nations.
The head of the PLO’s Commission for Colonization and Wall Resistance, Moayad Shaaban, told Tel Aviv Tribune that Zanuta was just one of 26 communities in the occupied West Bank from which Palestinians had been displaced since the beginning of the war against Gaza.
“Zanuta has been liberated, but it is completely destroyed, and we will work under the instructions of (Palestinian Authority) President Mahmoud Abbas to restore the village as it was before,” Shaaban said. “We will build houses, schools and mosques and provide what residents need so they can resist the settlers and the Israeli occupation. »
“We will work in coordination with the legal side in order to work legally and not (allow) any repeated attacks on the village residents,” he added. “We will restore Zanuta to the way it was before the Settlers’ War. »
Frieze, the head of the village council, was among those doing what they could to make Zanuta more habitable while awaiting a court ruling authorizing a full reconstruction.
He spent his time cleaning the interiors of the less damaged buildings and hoped to renovate some of the school’s classrooms.
But with water and electricity lines cut and the lack of authorization to fully restore the destroyed structures, the road to reconstruction is still long.
And meanwhile, Palestinians in Zanuta are forced to live without proper shelter, unable to rebuild their homes until Israel gives them permission to do so.
“People live outdoors,” says Fagé. “Their roof is the sky and their bed is the earth, without a house to shelter them. »