HEBRON: Armed Israeli colonists today assaulted an elderly man in the Masafer Yatta region, located south of the West Bank city of Hebron, according to local sources.

The sources told WAFA that a group of colonists, wearing uniforms of the Israeli occupation forces, assaulted and beat Jebril Numan, a local Palestinian citizen, with rifle butts, causing him bruises.

The colonists further forced the man at gunpoint to stay at home and not go out with his sheep to the pastures he owns, and threatened to kill him if he did not adhere to their orders.

Meanwhile, a group of colonists, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, chased shepherds in the Shaab al-Batam village in Masafer Yatta and prevented them from reaching herding pastures. Simultaneously, Israeli forces let a group of colonists enter their sheep into the local citizens’ agricultural land and destroy planted crops.

In May 2022, Israel’s top court gave the army the green light to forcibly expel some 1,300 Palestinians living in twelve
villages or hamlets making up the Masafer Yatta area, which relies heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood, marking one of the largest expulsions carried out by the State of Israel in recent decades.

Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living – livestock.

It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since 1980s and accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.

Since this declaration, indigenous Palestinian residents have been at risk of forced eviction, demolition and forcible transfer. The two villages of Khirbet Sarura and Kharoubeh no longer exist after their homes were demolished.

Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA