Khirbet Zanuta no longer exists. The 250 residents of this precarious place in the inhospitable hills south of the West Bank city of Hebron managed to hold on for three years, but the attacks and threats from ultra-nationalist Israeli settlers after the Hamas attack have become so bad that they have resigned themselves to disbanding theirs houses and reassembles them a few miles away, hoping the physical distance will keep them safe.
The trucks are loaded with animal feed, mattresses and pieces of tin and wood from their huts. On the back of a truck there is a poster for an international cooperation project that today seems almost sarcastic. “Humanitarian support for Palestinians at risk of forced relocation in the West Bank,” it says. It was funded by the European Union and several EU countries, as can be seen from the logos.
The “risk” of forced displacement existed before the current war in Gaza, but has increased since then. Between 2022 and October 7 last year, more than 1,100 people, mostly Bedouins who make a living from agriculture and livestock, were forced to abandon their communities and seek new homes due to violence by Israeli settlers – a trend that international organizations and NGOs have described as worrying describe. These communities move to other locations in the West Bank, just a few kilometers from where they live. According to September data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), six communities were completely displaced and 20 were partially displaced.
A destroyed house in Khirbet Zanuta on Wednesday.Álvaro García
An abandoned car near Khirbet Zanuta.Álvaro García
Remains of a humanitarian aid container in the southern West Bank. Alvaro Garcia
The 250 residents of Khirbet Zanuta have left the town after the attacks of the ultranationalist settlers.Álvaro García
With the West Bank at boiling point and all eyes on Gaza, that number has skyrocketed. In just four weeks, almost as many people were displaced as in the previous 21 months: 821 people, 313 of them children, according to OCHA. On the one hand, the prevailing desire for revenge means that it is unlikely that Israeli soldiers will protect Palestinians from the radical settlers who are demanding revenge from all Palestinians for the Hamas attack that killed 1,400 people.
And it is not just the sense of increasing impunity that is driving Palestinians away. Another factor is the military mobilization of the settlers. Some religious ultra-nationalist settlers are among the more than 300,000 reservists called up but serving on the same basis. In other words, settlers who before October 7 were only allowed to own a handgun and had no authority can now wear military uniforms and carry long guns.
According to OCHA data, an average of seven settler-related incidents have occurred daily in the West Bank since the war began. In the first eight months of the year – when religious ultranationalism gained unprecedented influence in the Israeli government – that number stood at three, marking the highest daily average since the United Nations began keeping records in 2006.
In Khirbet Zanuta, Abdul Halim al Til, 40, describe how the situation has worsened. A few years ago he took out his cattle (his main source of income) without any problems. Then the settlers began entering at night to empty their water tanks (the city cannot be connected to running water) and scare away the livestock with drones. “Since the beginning of the war we have not dared to advance more than a few meters. “The army will be coming soon,” he says, apologizing for not being able to offer more than a glass of hot Coke.
“Life is impossible here now and life is the most important thing. There is no security. Since the beginning of the war, settlers and soldiers have come every day at dawn and dusk. They beat people, they burn houses, they break windows or they empty our water tanks,” says Moaz al Til, standing among the remains of Khirbet Zanuta.
For the Palestinians in the West Bank, it is no longer clear whether the settlers are attacking with the support of soldiers or whether they are just soldiers. “There are settlers who we knew by sight, who we knew came from the settlement, and now they come in uniform,” says Moaz. Last week, he says, they held a gun to his father’s head and told him, “If you don’t go, we’ll kill you all.”
Two children on a tractor in the southern West Bank.Álvaro García
Three Palestinians were displaced by Israel in the southern West Bank on Wednesday.Álvaro García
A man evicted from Khirbet Zanuta on Wednesday. Alvaro Garcia
A woman displaced from Khirbet Zanuta. Alvaro Garcia
Parallel legal systems
Khirbet Zanuta is located in Zone C, the largest (60%) of the three zones into which the West Bank was divided by the Oslo Accords in 1993. The Israeli army has full control here, both administratively and security-wise. Half a million Jewish settlers and 300,000 Palestinians live there with two parallel legal systems: Israeli civil law for the former and martial law for the latter. Palestinians are effectively banned from building in Area C: more than 90% of applications are rejected and demolition occurs every two days. They build without permission and often don’t even ask for one. In addition, the more than 200 livestock communities not “recognized” by Israel, such as Khirbet Zanuta, have no connection to the electricity or water network, and all of their buildings – whether huts, concrete houses, agricultural structures or solar panels – are considered illegal.
“Today we cannot distinguish between settlers and soldiers […] There are settlers we know, against whom we have filed complaints, we have seen them beating up others. Today they are the army, they have the law in their hands,” says Nawaya, recalling that a soldier with whom he has never had problems recently told them: “We will blow up your house, like in Gaza .” “Nowadays they look at us as if all Palestinians committed the attack [on October 7]“, he complains.
Panoramic view of the city of Hebron, on Wednesday.Álvaro García
Because of Israel’s religious nationalism, Area C has been a battleground for land for years. In 2021, Uri Jever, the director of the regional council of the Kiryat Arba settlement, said it is important to look for and pursue points of agricultural development. “There is a saying in Arabic: ‘Abandoned property teaches people to steal.’ What we don’t use, what we don’t grab, someone else will eat and record,” he said in an online conference organized by Amana, an organization that promotes colonization.
This summer, Israel destroyed the school in Ein Samia, one of six villages forcibly displaced before the Hamas war. The school, built with EU funds, was the only building left standing after villagers disbanded the community two months earlier. “The state of Israel will not allow illegal construction and no Arab takeover of the open spaces,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is in charge of civil affairs in the region.
An Israeli police vehicle patrols a street in the southern West Bank.Álvaro García
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