HEBRON, April 18, 2025 (WAFA) — Israeli occupation forces on Friday violently suppressed a peaceful protest in the town of al-Dhahiriya, located south of Hebron, against settlement expansion and detained three Palestinian citizens, as settler violence continued to surge across the southern West Bank.
Rakad al-Hawarin, a local landowner whose property has been targeted by Israeli colonists for seizure, said the demonstration was organized by residents protesting the bulldozing of lands in the ‘Annab al-Kabira area, where Israeli forces and colonists are working to construct a new outpost and settlement roads.
The army dispersed the gathering using force, detaining Ahmad Mohammad al-Hawarin, Shadi Ata al-Hawarin, and Amin Rateb al-Hawarin, and forcibly evicted the remaining demonstrators under threat of weapons.
Meanwhile, armed Israeli colonists carried out coordinated assaults on Palestinians and their property in the towns of Sa’ir, al-Dhahiriya, and Yatta. In Sa’ir, colonists attempted to seize land under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
In Khirbet al-Rakeez village, in the Masafer Yatta region, colonists installed water pipes on the land of Saeed al-Amour, a local Palestinian who was shot in the leg by a colonist a day earlier. Al-Amour is currently hospitalized at Soroka Medical Center in Bir As-Sabi’ under Israeli custody.
Adding to the tension, an Israeli colonist raised the Israeli flag over a tent pitched on Palestinian-owned land in the ‘Anab area of al-Dhahiriya, signaling the intended establishment of a new settlement outpost.
M.N
