A thousand Palestinians survive in an Israeli army firing range. Or, put another way, an Israeli army firing range took the lives of 1,144 Palestinians (including 569 children) who live in a dozen villages in a place called Masafer Yatta, in the hills south of Hebron in the southern tip of the occupied West Bank. In 1981, the then Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, expanded the closed military zones, making it easier for this 3,000-hectare territory to become Firing Zone 918, which automatically made the inhabitants of these 3,000 hectares illegal residents.
In 1999, some 700 inhabitants were expelled. But the eviction process was stopped when the Supreme Court ruled that a firing range could not be imposed on a previously inhabited area.
But the law is far from protecting those who stayed in Masafer Yatta. Those who refuse to leave have seen their houses demolished (two entire villages have been destroyed), so they have returned to take refuge in the old caves that originally, since the time of the Ottoman Empire, served as homes on these dry hills. .
New pressures have been added to this extremely distressing situation. And also new complaints. To the actions in his favor on the part of the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, Amnesty International and other organizations is now added a report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
“Soldiers enter villages at night, impose curfews and other movement restrictions, conduct military training near inhabited areas, confiscate vehicles and demolish houses,†says David Cantero, MSF general coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. . “They make life impossible for them.”
Worse still, the inhabitants of Masafer Yatta are seeing their access to medical services increasingly limited, and this despite the mobile clinics that MSF launched in 2021. Patients with serious illnesses or pregnant women have been forced to move . Even ambulance access is limited by military impositions.
“Over the last year, we have seen firsthand the impact of an increasingly repressive environment on the physical and mental health of the population of Masafer Yatta,†says Cantero. “As a humanitarian medical organization, we denounce Israeli policies and call on the Israeli authorities to immediately suspend the eviction plan and cease the application of measures that restrict the access of the Palestinian population of Masafer Yatta to basic services, including medical care. . This unnecessary suffering must end.”
The ultimate goal of the pressure on Masafer Yatta is none other than the final eviction. But this time with the support of the Supreme Court, which ruled in May 2022 that the members of these small communities are not “permanent residents” and therefore the State has the power to declare this territory a firing range. Months later, in October, B’Tselem went to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court to denounce the violation of international humanitarian law. No result so far.
