RAMALLAH, July 5, 2025 (WAFA) – The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has raised alarm over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Khirbet Umm al-Kheir and the broader Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, where escalating colonist violence and demolition orders threaten the imminent forced displacement of hundreds of Palestinian Bedouin families.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA Director in the West Bank, said that for years, Palestinian refugees in Khirbet Umm al-Kheir—adjacent to the illegal Karmei'el colony—have endured harassment, violence by colonists, home demolitions, and administrative measures that have undermined their way of life. UNRWA provides essential services to this vulnerable Bedouin community.

Friedrich warned that tensions have worsened in recent days, with armed colonists repeatedly entering the community by day and night, vandalizing property and attempting to expand the settlement’s fencing onto Umm al-Kheir’s lands.

"This comes at a time when Palestinian communities in Firing Zone 918, adjacent to Masafer Yatta, are at risk of displacement, affecting 200 families, comprising approximately 1,200 people, including 500 children. Under international law, these colonies are illegal."

 “These remote Bedouin and herding communities, such as Umm al-Kheir and the villages of Masafer Yatta, face a very real risk of forced transfer, part of a broader pattern of land appropriation in Area C, rising colonist violence, and widespread impunity,” Friedrich said.

He stressed that Israel, as the occupying power, bears full responsibility for protecting these Palestinian communities from colonist violence and holding perpetrators accountable.

Friedrich called for an immediate halt to property demolitions and forcible displacement, and for the protection of the basic human rights of Bedouin communities, who have lived on these lands for generations.

Y.S