In a new escalation, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers set fire to three uninhabited tents early Tuesday morning in Wadi al-Jawaya, located in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
The tents belonged to Palestinian residents Mousa and Issa Hassan Shawahin, and Issa Mohammad Shawahin.
Anti-colonization activist, Fuad al-Amour, stated that the attack was carried out by a group of armed colonizers who invaded the area accompanied by Israeli occupation forces.
This attack is part of a broader campaign serious violations and displacement targeting Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta, a region long threatened by Israeli military and settler expansion.
In addition to the arson attack, colonizers have continued to graze livestock on Palestinian farmland and deliberately destroy agricultural infrastructure.
In the nearby village of Zuwaidin, also in the South Hebron Hills, colonizers recently uprooted trees and assaulted residents, including two 12-year-old shepherds. When villagers intervened, the colonizers hurled stones at homes and fired live ammunition.
Israeli soldiers later invaded the area—not to stop the attackers, but to abduct 19 Palestinians, parading them out of the village in what witnesses described as a “humiliating” display.
Earlier this month, Israeli colonizers and soldiers uprooted 150 olive trees in the village of Um al-Khair, also in Masafer Yatta.
These attacks are part of a systematic effort to forcibly displace Palestinians from their land, particularly in areas designated by Israel as “firing zones”—a classification condemned by human rights groups as a violation of international law.
According to the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, over 38,000 violations have been documented across the West Bank since October 2023, including 7,154 by colonizers. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed in colonizer attacks alone.
The destruction of homes, farmland, and livelihoods in Masafer Yatta reflects a deepening settler-colonial strategy, where state-backed violence and impunity fuel daily terror against Palestinian civilians.
On Sunday, The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission revealed Sunday that Israeli occupation authorities have illegally confiscated 70.147 dunams of Palestinian lands near Nablus, in the occupied West Bank’s northern part, under a military order citing what the army dubbed as “security and military purposes.”
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.
