AL-KHALIL, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Wednesday declared around 400 dunums of land in the Sarura area of Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil, a closed military zone following the seizure of a cave belonging to Palestinian resident Jamil al-Amour by an Israeli settler.
The decision came after local villagers and activists demanded that the settlers be removed, but the IOF instead expelled Palestinians and solidarity activists from the area while allowing settlers to remain inside the cave.
Local anti-settlement activist Osama Makhamra told Al-Araby al-Jadeed news website that the Sarura area lies between several villages and hamlets in Masafer Yatta, bordered by Khirbet al-Mufaqara to the west, Khillet al-Dab’a to the southeast, and the village of al-Tuwani to the north. The illegal settlement of Havat Ma’on sits to the east and northeast.
He explained that the area has effectively been off-limits to Palestinians since before October 7, 2023, due to repeated settler attacks and its proximity to the settlement. Despite the risks, local residents continue to visit daily to tend to their farmlands.
Makhamra added that settlers recently pitched a tent atop a hill in Sarura and have been stationed there around the clock, signaling an attempt to solidify their presence and expand their control over lands belonging to the al-Amour family.
The area spans hundreds of dunums, with Khirbet al-Mufaqara being the nearest inhabited community to the west, home to about 150 Palestinians living in nearly 20 caves.
According to Makhamra, settlers’ ambitions in Sarura are part of a broader expansion plan to link the settlements of Ma’on and Avigal by taking over lands in the areas between them, including al-Rakiz, Khillet al-Dab’a, and Sarura.
In recent days, settlers carried out similar assaults, uprooting grape and olive saplings, demolishing and stealing tents, and vandalizing vineyards and private property belonging to Palestinian residents such as Mahmoud Abu Tuhfa and Mohammed Ubeid, in what activists describe as an organized campaign to take over more land in Masafer Yatta.
Fouad al-Amour, coordinator of the Protection and Steadfastness Committees in Masafer Yatta, said the latest events form part of a systematic Israeli plan to forcibly displace Palestinians through “grazing settlement policies,” legal pretexts, and daily harassment by settlers backed by the IOF and Israeli police.
He described the settler’s takeover of al-Amour’s cave in Sarura as a “dangerous precedent,” noting that the settler prevented activists from filming the incident under the false claim of “filming his wife.” Al-Amour said such excuses are part of a new Israeli tactic to fabricate legal justifications and conceal the colonial nature of these actions.
According to data released by the Palestinian Government Media Office, settler violence in the occupied West Bank has sharply escalated since Israel launched its genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. Settlers have carried out 7,154 attacks against Palestinians and their property, resulting in the killing of 33 people up to date.
