Hebron / PNN /

Residents of Khirbet Susiya, south of Hebron and one of the hamlets and communities of Masafer Yatta, have formed night patrol teams to protect people and property from escalating attacks by Israeli settlers, amid what locals describe as army protection for the assailants and international silence that stops at condemnation without concrete action.

The night guards were organised as a grassroots initiative by residents seeking to safeguard their families, livestock and belongings, said Jihad al-Nawajaa, head of the village council. Under the system, volunteers rotate shifts throughout the night — one group rests while another stays awake — to watch over the community and deter settler incursions.

Al-Nawajaa said attacks take many forms, including arson, land theft, beatings and harassment. The most dangerous, he added, are night-time assaults. Residents of the village, located south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, have faced near-daily attacks that have intensified since Israel’s war on Gaza in 2023. Settlers, he said, emboldened by backing from Israel’s far-right government and the widespread arming of settler groups, have launched coordinated assaults on Palestinian towns and villages stretching from the northern West Bank and the Jordan Valley to its far south.

These conditions, al-Nawajaa said, forced residents to organise self-protection groups using the most basic means available: torches, sticks and fires to keep warm as young men stay up through the night. “These are simple methods with limited resources,” he said, noting that the village council can offer only modest support in the absence of any official body providing protection or preventing settler attacks.

He said residents now guard village entrances and high points overlooking the community, lighting torches and conducting patrols around homes, solar panels and water tanks — infrastructure frequently targeted by settlers through burning or vandalism in an effort to make life unlivable and force Palestinians off their land.

Al-Nawajaa told Palestine News Network (PNN) that international solidarity activists and anti-settlement campaigners sometimes come to support the community, but they too face harassment, arrests and targeting by Israeli forces and settlers. “Israel does not want witnesses to the crimes committed by the occupation and its settlers against the Palestinian people,” he said.

He stressed that Susiya is a Palestinian community whose livelihood depends on herding and livestock farming. Residents, he said, are committed to protecting their animals and property through peaceful means — staying awake together at night, gathering around fires for warmth in the cold weather that settlers often exploit to carry out attacks. The patrols, he said, are strictly for guarding and defending property.

Nasser al-Adra, an anti-settlement activist, said residents of Khirbet Susiya possess the will, determination and right to remain on their land, compelling them to protect themselves and their families. “The settler arrived as an aggressor, imposed by the force of occupation and its power,” he said. “We belong to this land. It knows our ancestors — back seven generations. Settlements and settlers know they are temporary, no matter how long it takes.”

Al-Nawajaa reaffirmed the determination of Susiya’s residents to defend their land and rights, particularly under Israel’s current government led by far-right figures such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whom he accused of unleashing settlers, enabling attacks and providing them with protection. “The people of Khirbet Susiya have no alternative to their homeland and their village,” he said. “If they are displaced, there is nowhere else for them to go.”

Khirbet Susiya, located south of the town of Yatta in Hebron governorate, is home to about 45 families, with a population of roughly 445. The community has been subjected to systematic, near-daily settler attacks for years.

The assaults date back decades to the early stages of settlement in the area. In 1984, the settlement of Susiya was established on land belonging to Palestinian residents, who were forcibly displaced by Israeli authorities in 1986 and barred from returning to their original lands. They were permitted only to remain on the periphery, near areas from which they remain excluded.

Since then, Palestinian families have lived under sustained settler violence that has escalated sharply since the 2023 war on Gaza. Residents report systematic vandalism, harassment, theft, arson and racist abuse, carried out under the protection and cover of Israeli military and police forces.

This story was produced as part of the Qarib Programme, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) with funding from the French Agency for International Development (AFD).