West Bank20 August, 20263 min read
Israeli Settlers Burn Palestinian Home in Khirbet al-Fara, Hebron Governorate
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Otniel settlers set fire to a home in Khirbet al-Fara while a family slept inside. The home belonged to Bassam al-Nawaj'a, in Khirbet al-Fara west of Yatta.
Home burned in Yatta
Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian home in the Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank on Thursday while a mother and her daughter were inside, according to local sources cited by Middle East Monitor. Aliya al-Nawajaa, the owner of the burned home, told Anadolu Agency that five masked occupiers attacked her house at dawn in the Khirbet al-Fara area of the city of Yatta, and that one of the occupiers opened the bedroom window where she was sleeping with her daughter and threatened her and her family.
The attackers set fire to the bedroom, causing the flames to spread rapidly before she could put them out, and she said she woke her daughter and they barely managed to flee the house safely. Separately, the Israeli army began moving mobile homes to a settlement outpost established on Mount Tarousa, west of the city of Dura, southwest of Hebron, according to local sources cited in the same report.
Threats, escape, and displacement
Al Jazeera’s Arabic-language account, translated as “The West Bank.. settlers burn a home while a mother and her daughter are inside it,” says the owner, Aliya al-Nawja’a, reported that five masked settlers attacked her house at dawn in the Khala al-Fra area of Yatta and opened the bedroom window where she slept with her daughter. In that account, al-Nawja’a said the attackers set fire inside the bedroom and that she could not extinguish it, adding that she hurried to wake her daughter and leave the house at the last moments.
The same translated report says residents and neighbors did not wake up immediately due to the timing of the attack, prompting her to call her husband who was not at home to ask for help. It also includes the line “Despite the burning of the house, we remain on our land..” and frames the incident alongside the Israeli army’s movement of mobile homes to a settlement outpost west of Dura in Hebron.
Human rights claims and risk
The Television العربي report says the Israeli army began moving mobile homes to the settlement outpost on Mount Tarosa, west of Dura in Hebron, and that heavy Israeli machinery started early in the morning to move new mobile homes as part of a plan to expand settlements in the area. It also quotes Human Rights Watch as warning that settler attacks are increasingly forcing Palestinians from their homes, and says the organization noted in a Thursday statement that settler violence has led to the complete or partial displacement of 107 villages and towns affecting about 5,900 people since January 2023.
The same report adds that Human Rights Watch said 15 residents have been killed by settlers since the beginning of this year until July 24, including two children, and that it warned Israeli authorities arm settlers responsible for abuses, fund them, and grant them impunity. The report further cites Israeli-Palestinian researcher Sara Sunny (Sana Shar) saying: “The Israeli government and the settlers share the same goal, which is to seize the largest possible area of land with the smallest possible number of Palestinians.”