Within hours, Israeli forces demolished homes, wells, and even caves in the West Bank hamlet of Khilet al-Dabe’, leaving families with nowhere to shelter.
By Basel AdraMay 6, 2025
Israeli forces demolish buildings in Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe, in Masafer Yatta, the West Bank, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
In the early hours of Monday morning, two massive Hyundai excavators and two Caterpillar bulldozers roared out of the gates of the Ma’on settlement in the South Hebron Hills — illegally built on Palestinian land belonging to the village of At-Tuwani. For residents living in the area, the sight of these “yellow monsters,” as they call them, is an omen: the day will be filled with destruction, and families will lose homes they woke up in just hours earlier.
Roughly 90 minutes later, the full force of the operation became clear. Military jeeps, soldiers from the Israeli army, Border Patrol units, Civil Administration officials, and a group of workers assembled and then moved as a unit toward Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’, a small but resilient village nestled between the higher lands of Shafa Yatta and the lower hills of Masafer Yatta. I rushed there with other local activists to document what we feared was coming.
We were stopped by a group of masked soldiers about 80 meters from the village’s homes. “You are not allowed to move forward,” one soldier barked, dropping a rusty old bucket on the ground and declaring, “This is the boundary of a closed military zone: whoever crosses it will be arrested.”
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We asked if there was an official military order establishing the area as restricted. One soldier responded, “It will arrive in a few minutes.” But the demolition dragged on for hours, and no such order ever appeared. This wasn’t enforcement of a legal ruling, but rather an exercise of sheer military power. In truth, the soldiers didn’t even pretend to be upholding Israel’s own discriminatory laws. They simply threatened us with weapons and arrests.
As soldiers held us back, one excavator tore through two water wells, while others stormed into the community itself. Families were forcefully removed from their homes. Among them was 80-year-old Amna Dababseh and her husband Ali, 87.
Ali Dababseh stands near soldiers as Israeli forces demolish buildings in the West Bank village of Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
“My daughter brought us breakfast and we were just about to eat, when she said the army had entered the village,” Amna recounted. “Suddenly, soldiers were at our door. One pointed at our home and said, ‘Get out. We’re going to demolish this house.’ I told him: ‘My husband had a stroke and can barely walk. I have diabetes. Where do you expect us to go?’ He just said, ‘Go to the mountain. Move!’”
Amna’s voice cracked as she described the chaos. Border police walked around the homes, evicting family after family. Men, women, and children were pushed up a hill overlooking the destruction of their community. “This village has suffered demolitions for 20 years,” Amna said, “but never like this.”
She stood crying among dozens of others, watching her life’s work reduced to rubble. Despite the trauma and shock, she kept repeating: “I will never leave this village — not until my last day.” Her husband and others echoed the same sentiment, determined to defy and resist a system designed to erase them.
A Palestinian woman walks by as Israeli forces demolish buildings in the West Bank village of Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
“They want to erase us”
What took place in Khilet al-Dabe’ was not merely a demolition — it was a sweeping erasure. In total, nine homes were destroyed, along with six caves, seven wells, four livestock shelters, 10 water tanks, and the village’s only solar energy system and internet infrastructure.
Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’ is one of the main communities featured in our documentary “No Other Land.” The village is known for its natural greenery and agricultural life, and unlike many others in Masafer Yatta, its residents focus less on livestock and more on cultivating almond, grape, and olive trees. They maintain traditional stone terraces and till the land year-round. The village’s elevated position and lush vegetation make it one of the most visually stunning in the area.
But geography is no protection. Over the past 18 months, four new settler outposts have been established to the east and west of Khilet al-Dabe’. Less than three months ago, on Feb. 10, Israeli forces had entered Khilet al-Dabe’ and destroyed seven homes and two caves. Amer Dababseh, Amna and Ali’s son, had his home and cave demolished that day. Since 2018, his property has been destroyed at least seven times. After the February attack, he and his family sought refuge with his elderly parents; now, that home has also been destroyed.
This time, Israeli forces left Amer and many others with literally nothing. Even the caves — historically used as emergency shelters for displaced families — were demolished. Now, many villagers, including children, have no choice but to sleep in the open.
The aftermath of Israeli demolitions in the West Bank village of Khirbet Khilet al-Dabe’, May 5, 2025. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
Once the army withdrew, villagers returned to the site, digging through the rubble for anything salvageable: clothing, kitchenware, personal belongings. The scene resembled a natural disaster, as if an earthquake had flattened their homes, wells, and lives.
The goal of Monday’s demolition, locals believe, is part of a broader effort: to push Palestinian residents off their land and clear the way for further illegal settlement expansion. “They want to erase us — not just our homes, but our presence, our history, and our future,” Amer said. For the families of Khilet al-Dabe’, the rubble is not just debris — it is a reminder that they are standing in the way of an expanding occupation. And despite it all, they are refusing to leave.
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In response to +972’s inquiry, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated that its personnel “conducted enforcement activity against several illegal structures built without permits in Firing Zone 918, in violation of both planning regulations and military access restrictions,” and that “the operation was carried out in full compliance with legal procedures and approved enforcement priorities.”
An Israeli army spokesperson said that “the enforcement actions were carried out after the completion of all required administrative procedures and in accordance with the enforcement priority framework previously presented to the Supreme Court.” It further claimed that “a closure order was issued in the adjacent area, and the general order which applied to the location in question was known to the residents as well. The temporary order issued was presented upon request.”
Basel Adraa is an activist, journalist, and photographer from the village of a-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills.
Thursday April 29, 2010 11:54
by Saed Bannoura – 
‘Worse than Gaza’: Conditions in West Bank Areas Reach Crisis Point
June 30, 2010Children living in the poorest parts of the West Bank face significantly worse conditions than their counterparts in Gaza, a study conducted by an international youth charity has found.
The report by Save the Children UK, due to be released on Wednesday, says that families forced from their homes in the West Bank are suffering the effects of grinding poverty, often lacking food, medicine and humanitarian assistance.
The European Commission funded study found that in “Area C”- the 60 per cent of the West Bank under direct Israeli control – the poorest sections of society are suffering disproportionately because basic infrastructure is not being repaired due to Israel’s refusal to approve the work.
Homes, schools, drainage systems and roads are in urgent need of repair, but instead of work being allowed, families are being forced to live in tents and do not have access to clean water.
Restrictions on the use of land for agriculture have left thousands of Palestinian children without enough food and many are becoming ill as a result, the study found.
Crisis point
Conditions in Area C have reached “crisis point”, the charity said, with 79 per cent of the communities surveyed lacking sufficient food – a greater proportion than in blockaded Gaza, where the figure is 61 per cent.
The lack of proper nutrition is having a major impact on the health of children growing up in the area, with 44 per cent of those surveyed for the study suffering from diarrhoea, the world’s biggest killer of children under the age of five.
Many children living in such communities are showing signs of stunted growth, with the figure running at more than double Gaza’s rate, and more than one in ten children surveyed for the study were found to be underweight.
The report says that for many Palestinians, international humanitarian assistance is far harder to access in the West Bank than in Gaza, with almost half the households surveyed in Area C reporting that they had no access to foreign aid assistance.
Save the Children warned that with the blockade of Gaza dominating headlines in recent months, the international community risked forgetting the fate of the poorest communities in the West Bank.
“The international community has rightly focused its attention on the suffering of families in Gaza but the plight of children in Area C must not be overlooked,” Salam Kanaan, Save the Children’s director in the occupied Palestinian Territories, said.
“Palestinians in the West Bank are widely thought to enjoy a higher standard of living but tragically many families, particularly in Bedouin and herder communities, actually suffer significantly higher levels of malnutrition and poverty.”
The organisation called for Israel to immediately cease home demolitions and land confiscations in the West Bank and said the Palestinian authority should take “urgent action” to develop services and improve food security in Area C.
“Palestinian children cannot wait for the stalled peace talks between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and the United States to find solutions to this crisis,” Kanaan said.
Pockets of poverty
Cairo Arafat helped devise the Palestinian Authority’s action plan for children before starting part-time work with Save the Children, and is now a spokesperson for Palestinian Authority. She told Al Jazeera the figures in the report did not reflect the conditions in the West Bank as a whole, but were still a major cause for concern.
“The overall conditions, if you look at health indicators and education indicators, are better than what is normal for the reigion,” she said.
“The problem is we are beginning to see a regression.”
The West Bank had “pockets of poverty,” she said, that left around around 10 per cent of the 240,000 children in the territory at risk of ill-health.
“There are certain parts of the West Bank were the situation is much worse than in Gaza, with a lack of access to water and shelter,” she said.
Arafat said that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was attempting to tackle the issue in the face of “excessive” obstruction from the Israeli authorities, particularly in areas near settlements and close to the separation barrier built by the Israeli military.
“The PNA is investing in a number of different programs in Area C and near where the wall is being built to improve the situation,” she said.
“But there are certain areas where the Israelis won’t allow infrastructure to be built.”
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Tags:Bernard Smith, poverty in West Bank, report by Save the Children, West Bank
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