Land Research Center

• Violation: Forcing five families to flee forcibly.
• Location: "Abu Al-Raish" area, west of Deir Ballut, Salfit Governorate.
• Date of Violation: 02/03/2025.
• Perpetrator: Israeli Occupation Army.
• Affected Party: Five families from the Mahariq family – 29 individuals.

Description:

The Israeli occupation army continues to tighten restrictions on citizens and farmers, as well as on Bedouin communities residing in various areas of the West Bank. This is aimed at forcing them to flee their homes and imposing new realities on the ground as part of a broader plan to Judaize the entire area. This serves the longstanding colonial settlement project, which focuses on seizing agricultural lands, particularly those classified as "Area C" under the Oslo Accords.

According to recent developments, the Israeli occupation army—under the threat of weapons—has forcibly displaced five Bedouin families from the Mahariq clan, residing west of Deir Ballut in an area known as "Abu Al-Raish", forcing them to move towards Deir Ballut itself. This displacement is a direct result of systematic attacks carried out by both the occupation forces and settlers against these families. These attacks have included harassment, physical assaults, the confiscation of grazing lands, and the unrestricted violence of settlers, who have repeatedly assaulted residents.

 The table below outlines the families that were displaced due to repeated settler attacks in the Abu Al-Raish area of Deir Ballut:

 Farmer Mohammed Shahiber's Testimony to the LRC Researcher:

"We have been living in the Abu Al-Raish area for many years. Previously, my brothers and I lived in Deir Diqla, south of Deir Ballut. We have been residing in these pastoral lands for thirty years. We live in residential tents made of arches and tarps, and sheep farming is our only source of income.

Three years ago, the occupation established a settler outpost on the lands of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi , just 300 meters from our tents. Since then, we have faced continuous harassment, including the confiscation of grazing lands and the prevention of our sheep from grazing. Since the war on Gaza began, the occupation has intensified its attacks on us, particularly because our community is located just 100 meters from the separation and annexation wall. Every day, the Israeli army fires bullets and stun grenades toward our community, in addition to conducting daily raids on our tents, vandalizing them, and assaulting our children.

At the end of January, settlers brutally attacked us. I was with my brothers, Ma'rouf and Bilal, herding our sheep in the Al-Raish area when seven armed settlers attacked us with sharp tools, beating us severely. They also stole our mobile phones. My brother Bilal's hand was broken, and both Ma'rouf and I sustained multiple bruises. At the same time, the same group of settlers raided our tents, destroyed two of them along with their contents, and assaulted our sheep by beating them and setting dogs on them, causing us significant losses. We are still receiving medical treatment in hospitals.

Following this attack, in early February, the Israeli army raided our tents after midnight, assaulted us, and conducted field interrogations. Since that incident, my brothers and I decided to leave the area and move to Deir Ballut, where we currently reside. However, if the opportunity arises, we will return to our land—which is why we left part of our tents behind, hoping to come back one day."

It is worth noting that the field research team from the Land Research Center documented, on January 27, 2025, an attack carried out by settlers from the grazing outpost established on the lands of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi against the aforementioned families. The attack included physical assault and the destruction of tents belonging to these families.

Additionally, in October 2024, the grazing outpost on the lands of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi was expanded.

It is noteworthy that, according to field documentation by the LRC, the Israeli occupation and its settlers forcibly displaced 38 Palestinian communities—either partially or entirely—between October 7, 2023, and the end of 2024. This displacement affected 355 Palestinian families (a total of 2,209 individuals, including 891 children).

Today, this number has increased with the addition of the Abu ‘Aram families, who were displaced from Wadi Al-Faw on February 27, 2025, and the five Mahariq families. As a result, the total number of forcibly displaced families has now reached 363 families from 39 Palestinian communities.

 Introduction to the Deir Ballut:

The village of Deir Ballut is located 24 km west of the city of Salfit. It is bordered by the village of Rafat to the north, the Green Line (the lands occupied in 1948) to the west, the village of Kafr Ad-Dik to the east, and the village of Al-Lubban Al-Gharbi to the south.

As of 2017, the population of Deir Ballut was 3,873 residents, belonging to nine families: Tuffaha, Khair, Abdullah, Qasim, Qara’oush, Msehel, Mustafa, Mousa, and Hadrous.

The town has a total area of 11,399 dunams, of which 503 dunams are designated as the built-up area of the village.

On its eastern lands, the Israeli occupation has established the Har Elei Zahavand Peduel settlements, seizing a total of 436 dunams from the village. Below is a breakdown of the land confiscation:

• The Har Elei Zahav settlement confiscated 190 dunams of the village’s land. Established in 1983, it had a population of 3,119 settlers as of January 3, 2019, according to Israel’s Ministry of Interior.
• The bypass road No. 446 has seized 127 dunams of land.
• The Separation Wall runs through the village's land, confiscating 119 dunams under its path and isolating 895 dunams. The existing section of the wall is 1,189 meters long.
• If the planned sections of the wall are completed, it will seize an additional 670 dunams, isolate 2,613 dunams, and extend to a total length of 6,695 meters.

Land Classification Under the Oslo Accords:

• Area B: 689 dunams
• Area C: 10,710 dunams

 مشروع: حماية الحقوق البيئية الفلسطينية في مناطق "ج" SPERAC IV - GFFO

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of Land Research Center and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the project donor; the Norwegian Refugee Council.

إخلاء المسؤولية: الآراء ووجهات النظر الواردة في هذا التقرير هي آراء ووجهات نظر مركز أبحاث الأراضي ولا تعكس بالضرورة وجهات نظر أو مواقف الجهة المانحة للمشروع؛ المجلس النرويجي. للاجئين