Hebron -

A bomb left by the Israeli occupation army was capable of radically changing the life of the 19-year-old Palestinian youth, Muhammad Yousef Makhamra, when it exploded in an accident near his house, causing him to lose his right hand.

This happened in January 2021, when Muhammad Makhamra was tracking his flock of sheep on the outskirts of his area of ​​residence in the "Markaz" community in the southernmost point of the West Bank.

Suddenly, the young man slipped off a rock in the pasture, and he fell on top of a bomb left over from exercises carried out by the Israeli army on the lands of the community he was living in at the time.

The explosion of the bomb seriously wounded Muhammad Makhamra, losing his right hand, and hitting him with shrapnel in the foot and abdomen, which required him to stay in the intensive care unit at the hospital for about 9 days, and he needed another 3 months to return to his normal life.

Palestinian Widad Abu Aram refers to earthen berms set up by the Israeli occupation army in the vicinity of her residence (Al-Jazeera)

the only son

The loss of his right hand was not easy for him, but he began to feel a lack and inability to do all the work that his life requires in a pastoral agricultural society, especially since he is the only son of his parents with 4 sisters, according to his talk to Al Jazeera Net.

Al Markaz is located south of Hebron, along the invisible line separating the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 and those occupied in 1967. It is among 13 Palestinian communities covered by a decision issued by the Israeli Supreme Court rejecting their residents' petition against their deportation.

A decision of the Israeli occupation army in the early eighties considered about 30,000 dunams east of Yatta town to be “military training area No. 918.”


Arrest in the meadow

In the last days of Ramadan, Muhammad Makhamra and his mother Wedad Abu Aram, who were fasting, were arrested by an Israeli force, and they were taken to a remote area inside the occupied territories in 1948, before they were released in a remote and empty mountainous area without food or drink, as they told Al Jazeera Net. .

Makhamra says that the reason for the arrest was grazing sheep on a land that the occupation army classifies as a military training area, even though it is a private land that they cultivate annually for the purpose of grazing sheep.

The injured young man complains about the continuous Israeli raids on their gathering, the threat of deportation, and the continued pursuit of them in the pastures.

He says that the prosecutions intensified in recent weeks with the start of the occupation army to build part of the separation wall on their lands in that area.

Land classified as firing zones in the southern West Bank (Al-Jazeera)

We will stay here and be buried here.

Muhammad Makhamra does not seem concerned about the Israeli court's decision, and says that he will not leave the place where he lives and where his father and grandparents were born to his mother and father.

The goal of what Muhammad, as well as the rest of the residents of the threatened communities, is to provide is to provide enough barley and fodder for their sheep after they are besieged and chased into the pastures, as they consider the survival of their livestock the most important ingredient for their steadfastness.

As for Widad Makhamreh, Muhammad's mother, she tells Al Jazeera Net that she was born in the "Al-Halawa" community near the "Center", where she grew up, and considers it the dearest place in her heart.

She adds, "Our cause is a land issue, and even if it is on the rocks, we will stay here and be buried here."

Umm Muhammad points to dirt obstacles erected by the occupation bulldozers a few days ago and surrounded her area of ​​residence, saying, "They drunk the whole area, and they surrounded us."

In communities threatened with deportation, Palestinians live in caves or makeshift tin or brick buildings, most of which have had demolition notices issued.

None of the Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta is connected to the Israeli electricity grid, and its residents rely on solar panels provided by international donors.

In 2019, the Israeli army destroyed a water network serving the threatened communities, which was also provided by international donors.


Migration begins

A few days after the issuance of the Israeli Supreme Court's decision, the occupation army began demolishing agricultural facilities and barracks in the communities located within the area designated as a "firing zone".

Raed Omar, a resident of the "Al-Fakhit" community, an activist and a member of a local committee documenting violations of the occupation, says that his house was demolished twice, most recently last Wednesday (May 11), in addition to two tin structures.

In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Omar refers to the recent increase in Israeli prosecutions of the residents, the confiscation of their vehicles and water tankers, and the attempt to prevent movement between communities located within Area 918.

Omar, a father of four children, adds that the settlements are threatened by Palestinians who were present before the establishment of Israel in 1948, and most of them have ownership documents from the Ottoman era, that is, more than 100 years ago, and their owners will not leave them, and "our duty is to root in them."

He points out that there are 4 schools serving the threatened communities, with more than 200 students.

Nafez al-Amour from the "Al-Fakhit" community also lost 3 houses that were demolished by the Israeli army.

He says that this time the demolition was carried out without prior notice, to be the beginning of the implementation of the court's decision to deport the residents, "at every moment they may expel and relocate people, but this land we inherited from our ancestors and our fathers and we will remain on it."

3 houses owned by Nafez Al-Amour were demolished after the Israeli court's decision (Al-Jazeera)

Decades of pursuits

In the last hours of the evening of Wednesday, May 4, Nidal Abu Younis, head of the local council of "Masafer Yatta", which also includes several communities, received a phone call stating that the Israeli court had decided, after nearly a decade of deliberations, to deport the residents of those communities. .

Of the 13 communities located within the firing zone, the court decided to displace 8 of them, inhabited by about 2,000 people, according to the head of the local council.

The villages and communities that are threatened by displacement are: Tuba, Janba, Markaz, Wasfi al-Fawqa, Wasfi al-Tahta, Khallet al-Daba’, al-Mafqarah, Maghair al-Ubaid, al-Fakhit, al-Tabban, al-Majaz, al-Halawa, al-Rukiz, and Sarourah.


early deportation

The Israeli army had deported about 700 residents of those villages in 1999, under the pretext that "residence is illegal in a military training area," but they insisted on returning.

At the same time, the residents turned to the Israeli judiciary as the only opportunity available to them, until an Israeli decision was issued rejecting their petition against deportation.

Karim Jubran, director of field research at the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, says that residents of Palestinian villages have exhausted the legal effort that was directed at a decision that "legitimizes the war crime and deports the residents of the traveler."

Gibran added to Al Jazeera Net that "the Israeli justice system, including the Supreme Court, is designed to serve the Israeli apartheid project and the violation of Palestinian human rights."

Gibran does not rule out the implementation of the deportation through large-scale demolitions in this area, calling for "criminalizing those who drafted the decision, whether at the political, military, or executive levels, or judges who legislated a war crime, according to the standards of international humanitarian law and international law."

He said that talking about military exercises is a way to empty Palestinian lands and to control them, pointing out that many casualties were recorded due to Israeli remnants in the firing zones.

Demolition of Palestinian homes after the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition against the deportation of residents (Al-Jazeera)

Systematic expansion plan

For his part, Abdel Hadi Hantash, a land and settlement expert, says that the military training areas were designed as part of a "systematic policy of expansion along the seam lines at the expense of Palestinian citizens."

In his speech to Al Jazeera Net, Hantash refers to the issuance of several Israeli military orders in 1996 to confiscate 250,000 dunams of lands in the eastern West Bank, along the Jordan Valley, 12 to 15 kilometers from east to west, explaining that "Area 918" is part of the scheme. Wider extends to the outskirts of Jerusalem.

And last Monday, the United Nations said, in a statement, after United Nations and European officials visited some threatened communities, that "Palestinians from Masafer Yatta should be allowed to stay in their homes with dignity."

It added that the expulsion of the population could amount to "forced deportation and a grave breach of international humanitarian law, and thus constitute a war crime."