HEBRON, Monday, July 8 2024 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation forces Monday demolished three houses and sheep barns, bulldozed lands, health units and water tanks, and uprooted trees, in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

Osama Makhamra, anti-settlement activist, told WAFA that the occupation forces raided Khirbet Aqwiwis in Masafer Yatta and demolished the house of local resident Jibril Musa Al-Na'min, which consisted of a floor, an area of ​​100 square metres, and was inhabited by 12 people.

He added that the occupation forces demolished a 140-square-meter sheep barn and razed crops, fruit trees, cement fences, and barbed wire owned by Al-Na’min.

Israeli colonists from Khavat Ma’on colony uprooted 120 fruit trees belonging owned by citizen Hafez Al-Harini in the village of Al-Tuwanah in Masafer Yatta, and began expansion work in favor of the colony at the expense of Palestinian citizens’ lands.

The occupation forces demolished two homes owned by local residents Hatem Musa Hassan Jabarin and Fadl Ismail Al-Najjar in the village of Shaab Al-Butm in Masafer Yatta. Each of them has an area of ​​60 square meters and is inhabited by 14 people.

In the same area, the occupation forces also demolished two sheep pens, each of which was more than 200 square meters in area, destroyed sanitary units and water tanks, and bulldozed lands, trees, and stone chains, belonging to citizens Hatem Jabareen and Youssef Mahmoud Youssef Jibreen.

Makhamreh explained that the occupation forces began new excavations in Al-Ayn Al-Bayda area in Masafer Yatta with the aim of expanding the Ezkhar Man colony.

The coordinator of the Popular Committees to Resist the Wall and Settlements in South Hebron, Ratib Al-Jabour, told WAFA that the attacks by the occupation forces in Kharb and the villages of Masafer Yatta aim to displace citizens and expand the colonies established on their lands south of Hebron.

The colonialists have escalated their terrorist attacks since October 7th, and since the beginning of this year, they have carried out 1,334 attacks in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, killing seven Palestinian citizens.

Since the beginning of 2024 through the end of June, the occupation authorities studied 83 structural plans to expand colonies or establish new ones, including 39 plans in West Bank colonies and 44 in Jerusalem.

During the same period, colonists established 17 colonial outposts on citizens’ lands, most of them pastoral, and took place mainly in the governorates of Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Nablus, Salfit, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Qalqilya.

At the same time, the occupation authorities legalized 11 colonial outposts in the West Bank, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

K.T