In the early morning, as farmers started sowing seed and plowing fields in Khoruba valley southeast of Al Tuwani village in Hebron, five settlers arrived from the nearby Havat Ma'on outpost and positioned themselves in front of the tractors to prevent the farmers from completing their work. The farmers attempted to move the settlers and physically block them from interfering with the land cultivation. 

Shortly afterwards, Israeli soldiers and Border Police arrived and immediately stopped the tractors from plowing.

The Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO), the branch of the Israeli military responsible for the coordination of civilian affairs,  later confirmed the right of Palestinians to plow the fields but the Border Police requested that all Palestinians and international peace activists leave the area, except for the farmers directly involved in the agricultural work.

Three settler youths moved from Khoruba valley to an area one kilometer south where they stopped another tractor from plowing and proceeded to throw stones at a Palestinian shepherd and his flock. Israeli forces again intervened, removing the settler youths from the area. 

In the last five years, through several coordinated nonviolent actions, Palestinians from Al Tuwani and Yatta villages have successfully cultivated fields previously made inaccessible due to settler violence and harassment.

F.J.