Residents of Khirbet al‑Kharaba, a small Palestinian community southeast of the town of Samu’ near Hebron in the occupied West Bank’s southern region, were assaulted on Tuesday when groups of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers invaded the area.
The colonizers hurled stones at homes and attacked families with pepper spray. Several residents suffered suffocation and physical injuries, and some were transferred to Yatta Governmental Hospital for treatment.
Witnesses said the attackers approached from outposts connected to the nearby Susiya colony, an area that has seen a sharp rise in colonizer violence targeting isolated Palestinian communities.
Local residents reported that the colonizers surrounded homes belonging to the al‑Daghamin family, smashing windows, and attempting to force their way inside while families were still present.
The assault caused panic among residents, particularly children, as colonizers moved between the houses and continued throwing stones at anyone who attempted to approach.
Medical sources confirmed that at least three people suffered injuries, including bruises, respiratory distress, and temporary loss of consciousness due to pepper spray.
At the same time, colonizers carried out a coordinated attack in Wadi al‑Rakhim in Masafer Yatta, where they uprooted and destroyed around 30 olive trees belonging to farmer Mohammad Mousa Shanaran.
The attackers also targeted the home of Yousef Mousa Shanaran, breaking windows and damaging household property.
Agricultural fields in the area were vandalized, including recently planted wheat crops, leaving visible damage across several dunams of farmland.
Residents described the attacks as part of a broader pattern of escalating violence aimed at pressuring Palestinian families to abandon their land.
Communities across the South Hebron Hills have faced repeated assaults involving the destruction of crops, harassment of shepherds, home invasions, and attempts to restrict access to agricultural areas.
Local committees say these actions are designed to expand surrounding colonies and tighten control over Palestinian rural areas.
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In related news, Israeli colonizers assaulted Palestinian shepherds and forced them out of grazing lands in Khirbet Samra village, in the Northern Plains of the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.
The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission has warned that the surge in colonizer violence, combined with the presence of Israeli forces at nearby military roadblocks, is creating increasingly dangerous conditions for civilians in the region.
The Commission noted that communities like Khirbet al‑Kharaba and Wadi al‑Rakhim are among the most vulnerable, as they lie close to expanding colonial outposts and remain largely unprotected from repeated attacks.
Despite the destruction and injuries, residents say they will remain on their land and replant the olive trees that were uprooted.
Local leaders in Masafer Yatta called for urgent international protection for Palestinian communities facing systematic colonizer violence, stressing that the attacks are part of a deliberate effort to depopulate the area and reshape the landscape in favor of expanding colonies.
On Monday evening, Israeli colonizers launched various attacks in several areas of the occupied West Bank, targeting towns in Nablus, Hebron, and Ramallah.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
