A few days ago, the bulldozers came to the villages of Khirbet al Majaz and Khirbet al Fakheit. Israeli soldiers and police secured the perimeter and the people in heavy machines did their work: They destroyed nine houses in Khirbet al Majaz and another 11 in Khirbet al Fakheit. Israel calls the Masafer Yatta cluster of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills, situated in Area C of the West Bank, “Firing Zone 918.” After a prolonged legal battle between the state and the villagers, on May 4, 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, issued its final verdict, which enables the state to destroy eight villages in Masafer Yatta and expel their inhabitants – for the sake of the Israel Defense Forces’ Firing Zone 918.
