Nel giorno di sole del 26 novembre mi fermo, dopo tanti giorni passati a correre su queste colline di sassi ed erba secca, a provare a guardarmi dentro, a prestare ascolto ai pensieri che mi rimbalzano, disordinati, per il cervello.

Sono sulla strada che porta a Mufaqarah, i ragazzi e gli uomini di tutte le famiglie di questo villaggio lavorano, spaccando pietre, per costruire il muretto a secco che costeggia la strada.
Ci danno dentro di brutto, urlano, scherzano, sudano e ridono senza fermarsi.
Ogni tanto un bicchierino di shai (con lo zatar o con la marmilla) scandisce il tempo e ricarica le energie: tutti si fermano, trovano un po’ di rami secchi per il fuoco. Un ragazzetto prende il borrado (la teiera) e prepara il tè, servendolo prima a noi ajaneb e poi ai più vecchi. Gli shabbab, i più giovani, aspettano che noi vuotiamo i bicchieri prima di riempire i loro. E’ il momento in cui ci si raccontano le storie, si commentano le notizie dei villaggi vicini e noi italiani siamo al centro dell’attenzione visto che ci muoviamo nell’area in lungo e in largo e conosciamo un sacco di persone. Poi, al cenno di M., il capovillaggio, giovani e vecchi insieme ricominciano a faticare, lasciando anche i discorsi a metà. Sono spesso stupito da questo loro atteggiamento, ma ora lo so, la gente qua è dura come le pietre: le parole infatti, a volte sono un di più, una cosa non strettamente necessaria rispetto al rumore del vento o del suono delle mazze che aprono le pietre. E il lavoro è ancora lungo e da finire prima delle piogge. Tra loro, c’è anche Ibrahim, un tipo un po’ matto… “Mishkino” mi dice M. a metà tra il divertito e il compassionevole “un poveretto, ritardato. Lui andrà sicuramente in paradiso. Allah ha voluto questa sua sfortuna sulla terra, per poi dargli una fortuna più grande, dopo. E’ malato in testa, ma è puro di cuore”.
Ibrahim viene preso in giro e lui sempre sta al gioco: si diverte a scambiare noi italiani per coloni israeliani, ci parla in ebraico, ci insulta. I ragazzi gli dicono di essere gentile con gli ebrei, che in fondo gli hanno “solo” portato via la casa pestandolo a sangue. Lui allora ritorna a parlare arabo e sembra far il gentile salvo per poi imprecare improvvisamente all’indirizzo delle nostre mamme e tutti ridono, e pure lui, felice di essere al centro dell’attenzione.
Lavora come un mulo, non si ferma neanche per il tè con tutti gli altri, che pure si fanno in quattro.
Ed è proprio in questi giorni di lavoro intenso che gli viene riconosciuta una funzione sociale, che si sente utile all’interno della comunità. Lui è quello che “tira” più di tutti, curvo sul suo piccone a spaccare queste rocce millenarie, quasi stesse combattendo la lotta antica della diversità contro il pregiudizio, abbattendo i muri a suon di mazzate.

Penso che ho molto da imparare da lui, da questo suo fare senza rivendicare piagnucolando, da questo suo affrontare di persona il proprio problema, esponendo e scoprendo anche le parti più deboli della propria persona.
E’ questo che posso ricevere da lui, il capire che le debolezze che gli altri vedono in noi sono una finestra aperta sul nostro essere, una via d’accesso per una accettazione completa di noi.

Se teniamo chiuse le imposte, se non mostriamo le nostre debolezze e le nostre paure più recondite, nascondiamo le vie d’accesso più profonde e più dirette. Per questo mi ritengo fortunato di aver incontrato Ibrahim: lui sa di essere un “mishkino”, un pazzo e non lo nasconde. Non chiude le imposte.

E poi mi guardo, mi vedo da fuori goffo e maldestro, in questo giorno di sole che non lascia spazio alle ombre: quali finestre posso aprire io?

Maquis

One of the structures under demolition order

On December 2, at about 11:40 am, two Palestinians from Jawwaya came in At Tuwani showing a demolition order for a house under construction, belonging to Ahmed Shawaiin, delivered few minutes before (at around 11.25 am). After that, two OD volunteers accompanied the Palestinians to Jawwaya, because they said that an other demolition order was delivered in the same time. When the OD volunteers arrived in the village, they saw an other demolition order under a stone near a tent used as a shelter for the sheep, belonging to Khalil Shawaiin. These demolition orders follow the stop working orders delivered on October 28.

The tent under demolition order, with a member of the Shawaiin family

270 olive trees damaged in the area from the beginning of 2013

(Italian follows)

November 30, 2013

At Tuwani – On the morning of November 29, a Palestinian noticed several olive trees damaged in two fields close to the outpost of Havat Ma’on. The owner is Rabai Palestinian family. When international observers arrived to the place, they counted 25 olive trees cut or seriously damaged. According to Rabai family, some of these olive trees were planted last year, after that the olive grove was damaged by settlers from Havat Ma’on.

The number of Palestinian-owned trees uprooted and damaged in the South Hebron Hills area from the beginning of 2013 now stands at 270. This is a substantial increase over 2012, when 101 olive trees were damaged.

This is the last case of serious olive grove destruction in the South Hebron Hills area. On the first of the 2013 year, on May 10, 62 olive trees were cut during the night in a field next to bypass road 317, near the village of At Tuwani. On a small wall near the olive grove the slogan “price tag for those who steal” was found.

According to Nir Hasson (Haaretz, August 21, 2013), “Jewish extremists originally used the term ‘price tag’ to describe vandalism and violence that targeted Israelis as well as Palestinians and was aimed at preventing or avenging evacuations of West Bank settlers.” John Lyons, instead, wrote (The Australian, September 17, 2011): “Some settlers practice a ‘price tag’ policy: if the Israeli government does something they do not like, such as trying to close an illegal outpost, they in turn punish Palestinians, by poisoning or burning olive trees, desecrating mosques or attacking cars.” Finally, according toThe Economist (September 2011): well-armed settlers “exact what they call ‘price-tags’ […] in the hope of provoking a conflict which they feel sure they could win.”

Olive trees are an essential resource for the Palestinian community in the South Hebron Hills area, and their damage causes serious economic loss.

Nevertheless the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills area are still strongly involved using the nonviolence as a way to resist to the occupation.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://snipurl.com/288w2n1

For further information:

Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

By Gili Cohen, November 26, 2013

Night raid in Yatta, At Tuwani views

Israeli security forces on Tuesday killed three armed Palestinians suspected of planning a terrorist attack against Israel in the coming days.

The three were killed in a joint raid by troops from the special police unit and the Shin Bet in the South Hebron Hills village of Kafr Yatta.

The suspects were members of a Salafist group operating in the Hebron area, the Shin Bet said in a statement, adding that pistols and explosive devices were found in their vehicle during the raid.

A senior Israeli officer said that a manhunt had been out after this particular group for the last week. He said the Israeli forces had opened fired in the direction of a vehicle carrying two of the passengers during the raid, and that an exchange of fire subsequently erupted.

“This is a local organization of a cell with an extreme religious orientation,” said the officer. He said forces were currently chasing other suspects in the territory. 

Witnesses told Haaretz that large forces surrounded several houses in the eastern edge of the village and declared the area a closed military site, preventing the residents from leaving their homes for hours on end, and that many youths clashed with the soldiers, hurling stones at them, and being repelled by gas grenades and rubber bullets.

Yatta residents identified the dead as Moussa Pansha, 22, Mohammed Nairuh, 23, and Mahmoud Anjar, also in his twenties, adding that all three were members of the Salafist movement of the village. There were contradictory reports as to whether the three were killed after exchanges of fire or were ambushed by an Israeli unit.

The Shin Bet investigation revealed that the cell had planned a series of terrorist attacks against Israeli targets, apparently plotting to kidnap and Israeli soldier, and against targets in the Palestinian Authority. A number of activists from the same terrorist cell had recently been arrested in the Hebron and Nablus areas, said the Shin Bet.

A wanted Palestinian was killed about a month ago near the West Bank village of Bili’in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces that had come to arrest him.

The Palestinian, 28-year-old Mohammed Aatsi, had been one of the masterminds behind the bombing of a Tel Aviv bus during Operation Pillar of Defense. He had been arrested several times in the past for his activity with the Islamic Jihad terror group.

Another two Palestinians, also activists with the Islamic Jihad, were arrested in the same raid.

Night raid in Yatta, At tuwani views

On sunday November 24, the escort didn’t accompany the children along the path from Tuba to At Tuwani school. The children arrived at the place in which was supposed they had to meet the escort at 7.55 AM and the escort wasn’t there. International volunteers called at around 8.00 AM the DCL, at around 8:05 AM and at around 8:10 AM the army. At about 8:15 the children chose to go to school by the long way, accompanied by two international volunteers. The children arrived at the school around 8:45.

On monday November 25, the children arrived at the place in which was supposed they had to meet the escort at 7:35 AM and they didn’t find the escort. After few minutes, international volunteers called the DCL and the Israeli army in order to make pressure. When the volunteers called the army, the army replied that they didn’t know that the escort didn’t come. At the second call probably the phone line went down or the army didn’t want to reply. So, the volunteers called Yesh Din and this organization called the army. The army answered to Yesh Din that the escort arrived, but they didn’t find the children, so they went away. The children decided to take the long way accompanied by two international volunteers. During the path, one settler’s car drove towards them, the two international volunteers and a Palestinian shepherd that was grazing near the long path. In spite of the scare, the children arrived to the school, at around 8:40. At 9:48 Dcl called the international volunteers asking if the escort accompanied the children or not, and at what time the children arrived at the chicken barns, suggesting to remember to the children to be on time in order to not give to the army the excuse to be late or not arrive.

Since the beginning of the school year, the children walked along the long way without escort 7 times.

Like all Saturdays, for almost one year already, Palestinian landowners in the South Hebron Hills are claiming their right to return to their land, on which Israeli settlers from Mitzpe Yair have built greenhouses

On November 23 at around 8.30 am, Palestinian, Israeli and international activists organized an action to access Palestinian-owned land in Umm Al Arayes, located adjacent to the Mitzpe Yair outpost. When several people arrived to the area for the action, Israeli soldiers immediately approached them, showing a military order that extended the permanent closed military zone (usually limited to a valley between a Palestinian village and the Mitpe Yair outpost) to the entire Mitzpe Yair area, including the Palestinian-owned land..

Despite the closed military zone order, Palestinians, accompanied by Israeli activists from Ta’ayush, an Arab and Jewish grassroots nonviolent movement, decided to enter their land, but were stopped by a group of settlers who began beating them.The settlers also attacked the Israeli activists, kicking, breaking and stealing their cameras. The soldiers, arriving to the area running and attempted to push everyone away – except for the settlers. After beating the Palestinians, the Israeli soldiers violently detained 15 of them in addition to two Israeli activists, forcing them to sit on the ground. Ta’ayush said that Israeli forces threatened death to those who tried to stand up, while the soldiers further discouraged videotaping the incident. Men and women were separated to prevent communication. Several of the detained people were beaten. After several minutes all the persons detained were released, except for five Palestinians (including the landowner and two girls aged 22 and 13) and two Ta’ayush activists, who were taken to the police station in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.

They were charged with assaulting and beating the soldiers, entering in a closed military area, in addition to interfering with police work.

For the landowner this was the second time in November that he was arrested while attempting to access his own land.

 (Israeli forces threathed to death who tried to stand up and soldiers dissuaded to tape also. They separated boys from girls to prevent the communication. Some people under detention were beaten).

Police demanded a 1000 shekel bond for each person to be released.

During the entire event, no action was taken against the settlers by the Israeli soldiers or police officers.

In previous weeks, like on Saturday, the Israeli army declaration of lands as closed military zone has impeded the Palestinians from accessing their land and this right. Since 2001 the Palestinians in the area have faced restricted access to these lands.

Video of the incident: http://youtu.be/4VPjd1AQEg8

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

22 November 2013

At Tuwani – On the morning of November 19, two Palestinian shepherds and a staff member of the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem were detained by Israeli army in the South Hebron Hills. The shepherds had been grazing their flocks on  Khelly Hill, At Tuwani village area. This hill is located adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Ma’on.

At 7.50 a.m. international volunteers noticed the Ma’on security coordinator, named Gedalia, was close to two Palestinian shepherds, while three Israeli soldiers were also approaching them.

The soldiers spoke with Gedalia and then asked the Palestinians for their identification cards,  which they did not have.
Gedalia tried to prevent the internationals from videotaping this incident.

After several minutes Gedalia, in front of the soldiers, said to the Palestinians: “You come from Carmel (a village near At Tuwani), you go back to Carmel and you stay over there and if you want to come here, you have to come with your ID”. The Palestinians responded by questioning his authority to give them orders.
At around 8.00 a.m. a B’tselem staff member arrived to the area and the Ma’on security coordinator began to scream at him. At 8:25 a.m. the soldiers asked the B’tselem staffer, who is  Palestinian, for his ID card. They took  without any explanations. The soldiers told the internationals that Palestinians aren’t allowed to graze sheep in that area, although the soldiers showed no maps and gave no clear explanations about this decision.

At around 8.30 a.m. Israeli police arrived and, after consulting with the Ma’on security coordinator and soldiers, took the two Palestinian shepherds to the police station in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, accusing them of grazing their flock on Israeli land and moving without ID cards. The two shepherds were released after 2.5 hours, after police checked their identities. During this entire time, the Palestinian staff member of B’tselem was detained without charge and without any explanation. At around 11.30 a.m. soldiers returned his ID card to him.

On October 15, Operation Dove volunteers were present when an Israeli soldier, under the orders of the aforementioned Ma’on security coordinator Gedalia, arrested a Palestinian shepherd without any charges (see more: http://snipurl.com/287iuex). After taking the shepherd to the Suseya military base for interrogation and to check his identity, they left him near the outpost of Shi’ma, somes 17 kilometers from the place of arrest.

Despite documentation, Israeli officials deny knowledge of expansion

(Italian follows)

November 11, 2013

At Tuwani – The Israeli outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills is growing at a phenomenal rate since the beginning of October. On Saturday November 9, the activist group of Ta’ayush (an Arab and Jewish grassroots nonviolent movement) and international peace activists entered the outpost in order to document the illegal works taking place and to ask the Israeli authorities to stop the expansion.

The activist group videotaped a large construction site, but settlers and the Israeli police and army prevented them from fully documenting the expansion of Havat Ma’on. Furthermore two masked settlers attacked the activists, throwing stones at them. In spite of the presence of the Israeli police, there were no consequences for the attackers.

Later, two settlers from Havat Ma’on came toward the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani.  One settler approached a Palestinian home and provoked the residents. A group of Palestinians from the village gathered near the house and the settler was distanced by the police.

The inhabitants of the nearby Palestinian village of At Tuwani and international observers have documented the expansion of Havat Ma’on since October 6, when they photographed a scraper while it was entering the outpost; they also later heard noises from the construction works. Several days later, internationals documented an excavator digging the land. Documentation of the entire construction process was not possible, however, because of the presence of woods that obstruct the view.

Despite receiving several notices of this expansion, when an Israeli activist informed the Israeli official responsible for the infrastructure of Hebron and the South Hebron area from the District Coordination Office (DCO), the official declared that DCO officers inspected the area and did not see any construction work.

From Havat Ma’on outpost come a lot of violences and threats against the local Palestinian communities. Just in the lands surrounding the outpost, Operation Dove volunteers have recorded a total of 43 incidents since the beginning of the 2013 in which local settlers are involved: 13 cases of Palestinian property damages (primarily olive trees); 13 violent attacks and 17 harassments and threats against Palestinians, Israelis and internationals.

While the Palestinian and Bedouin villages of Area C, including the South Hebron Hills, suffer from Israel’s ongoing policy of demolitions and threats, the nearby outposts and settlements continue to expand.

“Most of Area C has been allocated for the benefit of Israeli settlements, which receive preferential treatment at the expense of Palestinian communities, including with regard to access to land and resources, planning, construction, development of infrastructure, and law enforcement” declared the United Nations OCHA oPt (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in occupied Palestinian territories) in the report regarding the Area C, issued on January 2013.

Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.

Pictures of the incident: http://snipurl.com/285e8i5

For further information:

Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773

[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]

Activist’s footage shows settlement security coordinator telling soldiers to make arrests.

By Amira Hass, October 27 2013 – Video by Operation Dove

VIDEO: http://bcove.me/kbzpg6me

The Israeli army will launch an internal investigation into two cases in which soldiers allegedly arrested Palestinian shepherds on false pretexts, the IDF Spokesman’s Office has told Haaretz.

The investigation, under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, will be studying allegations that troops from the Kfir Brigade arrested Palestinian shepherds near the village of A-Tuwani in the southern Hebron Hills, taking them away from their flocks and pastureland for hours.

In the first incident, as shown in a video taken by an international activist who was at the scene, the soldiers arrested a shepherd on the direct order of an Israeli man named Gedalia, who is the security coordinator of the settlement of Maon. In the second incident, a commanding officer claimed the grazing was forbidden because it was too close to the outpost of Mitzpeh Avigayil. The shepherd testified that the soldiers struck and abused him.

In the A-Tuwani region, international and Israeli activists escort the local farmers and shepherds to their fields because of constant attacks by the residents of the outposts and settlements. The army and police often send the farmers and shepherds away to prevent friction with the settlers. But this was the first time in local memory that shepherds were kept from their pastureland by arrests made on the orders of settlers.

On the morning of Tuesday, October 15, Maon security coordinator Gedalia arrived at Ghali Hill, where Mohammed Shawahin, 31, of the nearby village of Jawiya, was grazing his flocks. Shortly after Gedalia appeared, a military vehicle containing four soldiers, three men and a woman, arrived. Shawahin got the message and tried to leave. But the woman soldier shouted at him: “You’re not going anywhere. Don’t you hear me? I’ve got a gun. You stay here. Don’t you hear me? You stay here. I don’t care. You stay here. Right here.”

It was then the sheep began dispersing. The security coordinator told the soldiers, “He [the shepherd] isn’t carrying an identity card.” In the video documentation, the sergeant can be heard asking, in Hebrew, “What do you want us to do?” The security coordinator said, “He was here yesterday, too — the exact same thing. I want you to hold him, find out who this person is, find out who this terrorist is.”

Shawahin offered to return to his home, a few hundred meters away, and come back with his identity card. The international activist tried to tell the soldiers that two days before, different soldiers had appeared and confirmed that grazing in the area was permitted. But the commanding officer decided to arrest Shawahin anyway, and handcuffed him. Shawahin was taken by jeep to an army camp in the settlement of Sussia. Ninety minutes later he was taken to the settlement of Shim’a, about 17 kilometers southwest of where he was arrested. He returned home on foot about seven hours after he was arrested.

On the morning of October 16, the same jeep appeared, only with different soldiers this time, on the road near the wadi and the privately-owned land on which Nael Abu Aram, 26, of the village of Qawawis, was grazing his flock. Two teenage boys were with him. Abu Aram testified that one of the soldiers took the pipe one of the teenagers was carrying and began striking the sheep to disperse the flock. The soldiers insisted that Abu Aram answer them in Hebrew and refused to believe him when he said he did not speak Hebrew. For several seconds, he managed to film the commander of the troops (Duchifat Battalion soldiers who completed their training in March 2013) telling him: “You’re not allowed to be here, right? You’re not allowed to be here, because this is [the unauthorized outpost of] Mitzpeh Avigayil. You’re not allowed to be here. There’s a Jewish community here, and you’re not allowed near it.”

Abu Aram said that when he tried to use his cellphone to call for help, the commander held his hand strongly, twisting his fingers. “He almost broke them,” he said. The soldiers handcuffed him, blindfolded him and made him get into the jeep. He says he was held for two or three hours at the army base in Sussia, in one of the prefabricated buildings (which he managed to see when his blindfold was removed for a few minutes). There, he testified in a video recorded by activists of the Ta’ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership, the soldiers struck, abused and cursed him while he was still handcuffed and blindfolded. He said they struck him on the chest, back and legs, held a burning cigarette to his mouth and extinguished it on his face, near his mouth. Later on, he was taken to the area near Shim’a, about 15 kilometers from the place where he had been arrested. He returned home about six hours after his arrest. On the afternoon of the same day, the same commanding officer from the Duchifat Battalion tried to arrest another shepherd in the same area on the same pretext — being too close to the settlement — but the shepherd firmly refused to get into the jeep. Because several international activists were present, together with a Ta’ayush activist, the commanding officer backed down.

The IDF Spokesman’s Office responded: “Each of these two incidents will be investigated thoroughly by the relevant parties, including the military advocate general and the army’s criminal investigation division, to clarify the circumstances. We emphasize that IDF troops act on the orders of their commanding officers in the field and are not subject to the orders of security coordinators.”

Were sheep really almost stolen from the illegal outpost of Havat Maon – or did its residents use soldiers to harass residents of the nearby village of a-Tawani?

By Amira Hass – October 14, 2013

On Sunday, October 6, residents of the unauthorized and illegal West Bank outpost of Havat Maon suspected that someone was trying to steal sheep from the flock owned by Yehoshafat Tor. “A resident of Havat Maon spotted two suspicious people on the farm’s land,” declared a news item on the right-wing website Hakol Hayehudi (“The Jewish Voice”). The item went on to explain, “Despite the looming suspicion that this was a criminal act, Israeli army troops decided to initiate the procedure known as ‘Dark Knight 3,’ pointing to the suspicion that an armed terrorist had infiltrated the community. Nearby communities were also alerted that an infiltration might have taken place.”

At nightfall, the dark knights raided the nearby Palestinian village of a-Tawani, whose olive trees are vandalized at least once a month (as of press time, the last time this happened was October 4). The police and the army never catch the vandals. This is the village whose residents are frequently stopped by certain Israelis from taking their animals out to pasture while the army stands idly by or actively stops them as well. This is the village where children cannot attend school without an escort, either from the army or international peace activists, for fear of being attacked by Havat Maon residents.

A single flash bomb got the village’s inhabitants out of their homes, and they discovered settlers in their village. “There are settlers in the village, there are settlers in the village,” they shouted. When the settlers began walking toward the school, the residents followed. “We asked them why they had entered the village, and they didn’t answer,” Mahmoud Salman told Eitay Mack, an independent lawyer. They had flashlights, which they pointed at homes and school and trees. Then they went toward the wadi. Then the villagers saw soldiers with the settlers. “We asked the soldiers why there were settlers in the village, but they didn’t answer,” Salman said. At that point, the soldiers began searching homes.

Salman’s father, Salman Rabai, 68, heard knocking so loud that it shook the front door, and the soldiers shouting “Open up, open up!” Rabai, who describes himself as ill and elderly, limped toward the door, leaning on his cane. When he opened the door, the dark knights aimed their rifles at him. They kept the weapons trained on him as he limped, on their orders, to every door in the house and opened each one.

“I asked them what they wanted,” Rabai told Mack, but they did not answer. They touched nothing in the house; they only looked. But that was enough to make Rabai’s 3-year-old granddaughter tremble with fear for a long time afterward.

Then the soldiers went to the neighboring home, as Rabai followed them. “My nephew — it was his house — was afraid and didn’t want them to come in. He told the soldiers there were small children inside. One of the soldiers got annoyed and pulled out a hand grenade. He threatened to hurl it if he wasn’t allowed inside. I intervened. I told the soldiers to calm down, that everything was all right. I opened the door myself. Another soldier took the grenade away from the comrade who had made the threat and told him there was no need to search the house. Then they went to another house.” Oops — maybe the sheep-stealer/armed terrorist was hiding there?

The soldiers got into an argument in the other house, too. One of them ordered all the residents out, including the small children who had already gone to sleep and were now frightened. But one of them said, “The little ones can stay inside.” In the end, more soldiers arrived, aimed their rifles, searched and forgot to order the inhabitants out.

Aisha Harini and her five children were already asleep. Later, Harini would hear that her husband and eldest son had been stuck at the village entrance. She awoke to loud knocking on both metal doors of her home. The soldiers also knocked on the windows, breaking the glass. “I was afraid to open the door by myself, without my husband. The children and I hid in an inner room. All the children, except for two who hadn’t woken up, clung to me. Two of them were crying. I told them to calm down and didn’t speak with the soldiers. I heard them go up onto the roof. They stayed there for about 20 minutes. Then…I saw soldiers ransacking the room and looking in the refrigerator. They also moved two sacks of grains.”

Meanwhile, another group of soldiers blocked the village entrance with jeeps, stones and tires. Gradually, residents — including women, children and babies — who had returned from Yatta and were not allowed to continue to their homes gathered there. It was cold. The soldiers shouted and took car keys from the drivers. They yelled at them, ordering them to stay in their cars and forbidding them from talking on their cellphones. The women tried to take their frightened children home. The soldiers, those chivalrous knights, shoved them violently and blocked their way. After about an hour and a half, more army vehicles arrived. Seliman Adra recalls that a Border Police officer told them: “‘Take your cars and get back on the road to Yatta. There’s an incident in progress here.’ When we asked them to let the women and children go home, the soldier said, ‘I don’t want to let you in — I don’t want there to be a conflict or a fight.’” Later, Adra realized that the “conflict” the soldier referred to was with the settlers who had broken into the village.

Were suspicious figures really spotted in Havat Maon? Or did the settlers enlist the soldiers as part of their upgraded scheme to harass the village? The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit did not respond to questions from Haaretz as Eitay Mack has filed a complaint with the Military Advocate General.