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Hebron Region

On February 9, soldiers and settlers from many settlements in the region south of Hebron informed the residents of the village of Jenba that they were not to enter the land as it had been declared a closed military zone. Ever since, settlers and settlements security have been preventing Palestinian farmers from using large sections of their land south of Yatta (see wider report on AIC website from February 13).

On February 10, settlers from Kharsina, to the north of Hebron, erected a new fence around thirty dunums that belong to Omar Ajrab. The land had already been leveled two months ago. Settlers also started planting this land with olive trees and grapevines. While working on the land, settlers stoned a nearby house, belonging to Zaidan Duwak.

On February 10, tens of settlers from Karmel, south of Yatta, itself south of Hebron, sewed new plants in about two hundred dunums of land which belong to the Ka?abna and Basaita families. This happened after an order was issued declaring the land as a closed military zone. According to the residents, sewing the land is the way to gain control over the land.

On February 11, settlers from Nagahout, a settlement to the west of the Palestinian town of Dora, south of Hebron, took control of about ten dunums of land belonging to families from Dora. The settlers placed a new caravan in the confiscated land in an effort to expand the outpost of Mitzpe Lachish. Settlers have already opened a new bypass road to link this outpost with the settlement.

Nablus and the North of the West Bank

On February 3, a group of settlers attacked four of shepherds from the Palestinian town of Tubas in the Jenin district. Naje Safadi, one the victims, recalled "while we were shepherding our goats in Kherbit Salhab five armed settlers approached us and started to beat us. We were later taken by residents to a clinic in the town, for treatment??. The victims of the attack are Salhab, Faisal Sawafta, 32, Saned Sawafta 23, and Saqir Sawafta 19.

On February 4, settlers from Ariel opened fire, from the settlement, onto the houses of the Palestinian village of Marda. Wathiq Ayoub, a resident of the village, said "they opened fire without any reason, luckily, no one was injured but the shooting restricted the two hundred residents of the village from going out of their houses and from sleeping, it also denied them from celebrating the E?id (the Moslem holiday).

On February 4, at 12 noon, around twenty armed settlers from Yizhar entered the village of U?orif, south of Nablus, causing clashes between them and the residents of the village. Soldiers entered the village and imposed a curfew. Sumaya Safadi, a Social Worker from the village, reported that after what happened in the day, the settlers returned at night and tried to burn down the house of Samir Sawalma, they poured oil and lit it, but other residents were succesful in stopping the fire. In another location in the village, settlers burnt two cars belonging to Husni Shehada and Bassam Abed-Elfattah.

On February 5, settlers from Paduel and soldiers uprooted five hundred olive trees from land belonging to Adel Safi and Abu Latef Ayyash from the village of Deir Ballout, southeast of Nablus. Nasfat Khafsh, chairman of the Land Defense Committees in the region said "the uprooting of the trees happened only one day after they had been planted, with the help of the Ta?ayush (Arab-Jewish-Partnership) movement. Settlers and soldiers had already uprooted hundreds of trees from this land on 20th January.

Land Confiscation

On February 6, bulldozers, under the settlers?? protection, leveled around one hundred dunums of land that belong to the Abu Jebara and Abu Sukkar families from the Palestinian village of Kufor Al-Labad, east of Tulkarm. Mohammed Abu Jebara said "these works are aimed to expand the near outpost of the Einav settlement which was established in 1999. The land that was leveled was planted with olive trees and we depend on the income from the trees for our livelihood.? The outpost consists of ten caravans.

On February 9, the army leveled twenty dunums in the area known as Khalit Abboud, south of Qiryat Arba??. The land belongs to the Da??na, Idrees and Jaber families. This is to expand the settlement to the southeast and to connect the settlement with bypass road #60.

On February 7, the Israeli military issued a confiscation order on two hundred dunums of land close to the settlement Kfar Darom. The order was issued under the pretext of security reasons. The order stated that the owners have the right to contest the order during seven days from the date from which it was issued. This land belongs to the Abu Samra, Tawashi, Abu bashir and Agha families. The orders were given directly to the families.