Israeli Occupiers Split Palestinian Village in Two with Illegal Outpost

(MENAFN) Israeli settlers began establishing an illegal settlement outpost in the village of Umm al-Khair in the Masafer Yatta region of Hebron governorate in the southern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, erecting structures under army protection, a Palestinian official said.

Khalil Hathaleen, head of the Umm al-Khair village council, told Anadolu that settlers had "started building a new settlement neighborhood in the middle of the village by installing caravans, erecting fences, and paving roads."

Hathaleen said the new outpost physically divides Umm al-Khair into two sections, severing roads relied upon daily by students and residents alike. He warned that Umm al-Khair "has been subjected to a fierce and ongoing campaign by occupiers," adding that construction activity surged sharply after midnight in a bid to be "tightening pressure on residents and displacing them."

"The goal is to expel the people, but we are staying here," he said.

Activist Ahmad Hathaleen corroborated the account, saying settlers began positioning caravans at the heart of the community overnight. He warned that the outpost "seizes dozens or even hundreds of dunams of Umm al-Khair land" — despite residents securing a ruling from an Israeli court months ago declaring the construction illegal.

He said the outpost's footprint cuts Umm al-Khair into distinct northern and southern halves, designed "to impose further pressure on Palestinians in preparation for their displacement." Residents, he added, endure near-daily settler aggression encompassing demolitions, warning notices, and deliberate cuts to water and electricity supplies.

The incident is far from isolated. Across Masafer Yatta, settler attacks and the proliferation of illegal outposts have intensified, amid Palestinian warnings of a coordinated drive to uproot Bedouin and farming communities from the area.

The broader picture is equally alarming. The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission documented roughly 1,637 settler attacks in April alone, as settler violence has run parallel to a sustained Israeli military escalation across the occupied West Bank — encompassing killings, mass arrests, and raids on urban centers involving home searches and widespread property destruction — since the onset of the Gaza war.

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