Press Release
If we had a protective shield and an imam, the Jews would not have dared to usurp our land and corrupt it
(Translated)

On 9/23/2022, Al Jazeera English published a report on the suffering of the people of Masafer Yatta [Palestine] from the settlers’ attacks. The report quoted testimonies of women from the region, who spoke of their and their families suffering from the attacks carried out by the occupation soldiers and herds of settlers, where they are beaten, shot with live bullets, attacked with gas, and arrested. Their land and property are confiscated and destroyed, not to mention the anxiety, fear and insecurity in which they live.

The Masafer Yatta area is located in the city of Yatta, 12 kilometers southeast of Hebron, on an area of about 32 square kilometers. Its residents have been in danger of permanent forced displacement for decades due to the establishment of 10 settlements, and “Firing Zones (918)” for military training. The communities being threatened with forced displacement are located southeast of Al-Masafer on an area of 32 km². According to a statement issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), “Currently in Masafer Yatta, 215 Palestinian households live in the area, including about 1,150 people, of which 569 are children.”

The residents of these villages are subjected to beatings with sticks and stones being thrown by the settlers, and their livestock are terrorized and scattered by the settlers’ riding horses or mountain vehicles which are used to frighten the herds, and by releasing the dogs that attack the shepherds and their sheep. The residents are subjected to setting their fields on fire and cutting down their trees.

The people of these areas, especially women and children, live in difficult living conditions, as they live in underground caves, because of not obtaining building permits such that they cannot carry out maintenance of their houses nor expand them. Since the early 2000s, they have been building tin huts and small rooms above the ground. However, most of them turned into wreckage after the occupation forces intervened with bulldozers to demolish them. Moreover, their health, education, water, sanitation and electricity services are limited. The unjust procedures and laws of the Occupation prevent the establishment of minimal health care for children, women, the elderly and those who suffer from chronic diseases, as the road is closed and the movement of people, including medical staff, is prohibited. They also prevent paving and reconstruction of the road, forcing people to use their agricultural tractors in an attempt to transport patients and emergency cases to nearby areas in light of the lack of qualified clinics and health centers in the area.

The entity of the Jews and the herds of its settlers are eager to commit crimes against the people of the Blessed Land and the Masraa of the Messenger of Allah (saw). They assault and terrorize women in its squares and in Masafer Yatta, and earlier, in the village of Douma, where they burned the Dawabsheh family and in Jerusalem where they kidnapped and burned the child Muhammad Abu Khdeir; and this is going on and on. The reason behind all of this is because this monstrous entity is immune from punishment, and relies on the protection of the puppet regimes in Muslim countries. And at the top of them is the Palestinian Authority, whose president went a few days ago to beg for solutions from the United Nations, which is the cause of the catastrophe of the Blessed Land and its people.

Aren’t all these crimes enough to stir up brotherhood and fervor in the hearts of the loyal sons of armies in the Muslim countries to move, to liberate in the path of their Prophet (saw) and to free his Ummah from the injustice that befalls them?! Have they not heard the words of Allah Almighty:

[وَإِنِ اسْتَنصَرُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ النَّصْرُ]

“but if they seek your aid in religion, it is your duty to help them, except against a people with whom ye have a treaty of mutual alliance. And (remember) Allah sees all that ye do.” [Al-Anfal:72]?! Is it not time for them to get rid of their chains and obey the Creator instead of the creation?!

Women’s Section
in The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir