Jaber Dabbaseh sits upon a pile of dust-strewn rubble.
“We feel oppressed, let down by a world that claims to be humane, while it does nothing,” the father-of-five says. The ruins once formed his family home in Khalet al-Daba’a in the West Bank, before his village was almost entirely demolished by Israeli bulldozers.
A crippling 2025 for Palestinians in the West Bank has seen 14 children among 80 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the north of the territory alone. In late May came a hammer blow when Israel announced that 22 new settlements had been approved. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich warned Israel would “not stop until the entire area receives its full legal status and becomes an inseparable part of the State of Israel,” a lucid illustration of the aggressive pro-settlement policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
On Thursday 5 June Palestinians marked Naksa Day, a commemoration of the forced displacement of around 300,000 Palestinians during the June 1967 war. Nearly six decades on, demoralised West Bank residents tell The Independent that the current situation is worse than ever.
“Their future is lost and we cannot provide for them, even a little,” says Dabbaseh, lamenting the life awaiting his five boys. “The situation is very, very tragic.”
Dabbaseh is one of the residents of Khalet al-Daba’a that have remained on the land, living in tents and residential caves since Israeli machinery razed it to the ground on 5 May. The IDF says the village is “built illegally within a military firing zone” and that Palestinians live there illegally. This is disputed by the UN, EU, and rights organisations who say the forced expulsion of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta is illegal.
“Israel must immediately halt illegal practices leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians, including attacks on residential areas, destruction of property and infrastructure, pervasive access and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians,” Amnesty International said on Thursday in a statement marking Naksa Day, as it accused Israel of presiding over a “ruthless system of apartheid”.
Since Khalet al-Daba’a’s destruction, settlers have roamed the remnants of the village daily, grazing their sheep and vandalising remaining structures in the hope of pushing Palestinians away from the land, residents say. Footage shows settlers stood among the wreckage of Khalet al-Daba’a as three soldiers watch on, hands in pockets, relaxed and chatty.
“Our children are struggling to reach school and live in anxiety and fear. We cannot protect them from the settlers. We have no clinics, no schools, no recreational facilities for children,” Dabbaseh says. Nine houses, ten water tanks, four animal shelters, a community centre and most of the village’s solar panels in the village were flattened by the army of bulldozers in less than two hours, according to activists. Residents watched on helplessly from a nearby hilltop, witnessing the stark transformation of their small village into a bleak landscape of lost livelihoods.
Masafer Yatta, a collection of hamlets in the South Hebron Hills which the Israeli army declared a military firing zone in the 1980s, has faced some of the most brutal manifestations of Israeli occupation. After decades of legal wrangling, the High Court ruled in 2022 that there were no legal barriers to prevent the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes.
Many Palestinians have repeatedly rebuilt their homes after they have been flattened. Others have moved into caves which have been renovated by locals and activists to make them habitable for families. Jaber Dabbaseh says the latest eviction was the eighth he has seen his home demolished in as many years.
Increasingly emboldened by the Israeli government’s pro-settlement policies, the rate of settler attacks on Palestinian villages has increased over the past year, residents say. Each week, footage emerges on social media of settlers, often masked and armed, descending on Palestinian villages in the West Bank.
“We are full of sadness, full of weakness. What can we do?” asks Mohammad Hesham Huraini, a 22-year-old activist who lives in the nearby village of at-Tuwani. “The people are scared and afraid. They want someone to stand by them to at least feel that we are not alone.”
Speaking in a phone call last Friday, Huraini says he is due to join join fellow activists and resident to visit the remnants of Khalet al-Daba’a. “I don’t know if we will come back in an ambulance, or a military jeep, or a police jeep,” he says. “It’s really worse than ever before, more dangerous than before. The people feel that they are alone, the international community just watches.”
Days later, Huraini was detained while sitting in a tent with other activists in Khalet al-Daba’a. Israeli police have routinely detained activists and residents on the land, including 70-year-old Irish woman Deirdre Murphy – who as of Friday remained in detention as she appealed her deportation – and Swedish national Susanne Björk, both UK residents. The army says entry into is prohibited under military orders.
“Every day it’s getting worse and worse, and we expect there is more worse to come,” says Mohammad Hureini – a cousin of the previously-quoted Mohammad Hesham Huraini. Speaking of the settlers, he said: “There is no power to stop them, they are roaming daily, shooting, stealing land. Anyone who stands up for their rights will be attacked.”
The Israeli military says its troops are “required to act to stop the violation” in instances of violence against Palestinians and “to delay or detain the suspects until the police arrive at the scene”. But Palestinians say Israeli authorities offer no such protection.
Activists including Basel Adra, the Oscar-winning director of the documentary No Other Land, which depicts settler and military violence in Masafer Yatta, have issued an urgent call for journalists and activists from the international community to flock to the West Bank. “It’s not easy for me to write this, but my community Masafer Yatta will be destroyed unless more activists and journalists don’t urgently come and join us on the ground,” Adra wrote on X along with a video showing Israel settlers standing among the ruins of Khalet al-Daba’a.
During one such visit led by Adra earlier this week, masked Israeli soldiers barred around 20 journalists from entering the villages.
As the conversation draw to a close, Huraini thanks the international community for their support. But now, he says, as the community of Masafer Yatta looks ahead to a gloomy future: “We need you here on the ground.”
The IDF said: “The mission of the IDF is to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel.
“Enforcement against illegal structures is carried out in accordance with the law, operational priorities, and subject to approval by the political echelon. The structures built in [Khalet al-Daba’a] and nearby areas were constructed illegally and were therefore demolished after the owners were given the opportunity to present their claims.
“The IDF monitors developments in the area and acts in accordance with regulations.” Israeli police were also contacted by The Independent.
