The “endless suffering” of a Palestinian people in the West Bank facing the Israelis

Palestinian Samiha Ismail’s face reflects fear. This resident of Susya, in West Bank occupied, lives in fear of Israeli settlers who constantly break into the village.

The woman knows that the situation can quickly degenerate in this town nestled in the arid hills at the southern end of this Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

The atmosphere in the surrounding valleys, long occupied by settlers, has become stifling since the war broke out in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas more than nine months ago, residents say.

Settlers from neighbouring farms and homes carry out attacks in Susya, sometimes “diaries”.

The violence and frequency of these raids continues “intensifying”, says the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has been operating in this area since January “surrounded” of settlements.

Life in Susya seems to have come to a standstill. Its 450 inhabitants take refuge day and night in their homes. The village, made up of concrete huts, looks like a public dump. Outside, only a few old tractors and cars without license plates can be seen.

Even the sheep no longer dare to leave their stables. “Every time we take them out to graze, the settlers chase us,” says Samiha Ismail, 53.

“Nobody moves”

“Before the war, we would have defended our land, but today no one moves” Because they (the settlers) are protected by the army, says the Palestinian, whose husband and son are “beaten” regularly.

Residents say nights are punctuated by raids, carried out by men in paramilitary uniforms, who break down doors, beat people or confiscate property.

“Most of us no longer sleep,” says the native of Susya, where people go to bed in shifts.

AFP contacted the Israeli army and police, and the Defence Ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Cogat), but none would respond to AFP’s questions.

The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack in southern Israel carried out by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza, which killed 1,195 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli data.

In addition, 251 people were kidnapped. The Israeli army estimates that 116 remain captive in Gaza, 42 of whom are believed to have died.

In response, Israel launched an offensive against Gaza that has already killed 38,983 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Since then, settlements and acts of violence have escalated in the West Bank.

At the end of June, the Israeli government approved the largest land confiscation in this occupied territory in more than thirty years: 1,270 hectares became the property of the Israeli state.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s highest court, ruled on Friday that Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories is “illegal”.

Even without the approval of the Israeli authorities, the settlements are multiplying. Patriarch Mohamed Al Nawajaa watches them grow from his home.

This man was born 78 years ago, before the “Nakba” –the name given to the forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that accompanied the creation of Israel in 1948–gets up from his chair and sweeps the horizon with his cane.

“After October 7, they took all these hills. But this land is ours,” protest.

“Permanent trauma”

For the moment, his main concern is the safety of his 80 grandchildren. So he has imposed a rule: only he can open the door to his hut. And like all his neighbours, he has put bars on the windows.

“They come at night, around three o’clock. They say: ‘This is my house’”account.

MSF deployed in Susya concerned about the mental health of its inhabitants.There is a psychological terror”says Simona Onidi, coordinator of the NGO in the Hebron governorate. “It is a permanent trauma”.

Abdul Rahim Al Nawajaa does not expect anything from doctors or authorities.“The suffering is endless”says this 60-year-old Bedouin.

His father was killed a few years ago in a dispute with settlers over a sheep, he says, and his house demolished. “repeatedly”.

“The settlers act with impunity. The soldier puts a gun to your head and you can’t do anything”says this shepherd. A rumor is circulating in the village about a new “Nakba”: “We will stay in our homes”promises Mohamed Al-Nawajaa. “And we will die here.”