Palestinians in Masafer Yatta brace for what could be their final displacement
The aftermath of the civil administration’s demolition operation in Khallet al-Daba, February 2025
Qassam Muaddi writes in Mondoweiss on 2 July 2025:
Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, the grouping of 12 rural communities in the South Hebron Hills, face a new wave of Israeli attempts to displace them — this time for good.
On June 17, the Building and Planning Bureau of the Israeli army’s Civil Administration — the governing body in charge of administering urbanization in the West Bank — issued an order allowing military drills in the so-called Firing Zone 918, which includes most of Masafer Yatta and its communities. This order effectively gives the military commander of the area a green light to forcibly displace its inhabitants, especially since it included the rejection of all building plans submitted by Masafer Yatta’s mayorship.
Palestinians fear that this development means that a final crackdown on Masafer Yatta’s inhabitants is imminent.
The order comes amid recent escalations by the Israeli army and Israeli settlers against the rural communities. In early May, the Israeli army demolished all Palestinian structures belonging to the community of Khallet al-Dabe’, including homes and livestock barracks, forcing its roughly 150 inhabitants to leave.
Jaber Dababseh, a Khallet al-Dabe’ resident in his late thirties, told Mondoweiss that the demolition happened in two rounds. “First, they demolished 70% of the area a month ago, including water wells,” Dababseh said. “Then they came back again after we had put up new tents. They tore those down, too, and destroyed the rest of the houses. They flattened everything, except for two homes and the school.”
After that round of demolition, settler attacks increased, Dababseh said. “They started destroying and vandalizing farmland, and they brought in flocks of sheep,” he explained, referring to the settler practice of stealing Palestinian land through so-called “shepherding outposts.”