Land Research Center

• Violation: Beginning the rehabilitation and expansion of a bypass road in connection with the evacuation of the Ein ar Rashash community.
• Location: Ein ar Rashash area - Duma village / Nablus Governorate.
• Date of violation: February 2025.
• Aggressor party: Settler groups.
• impacted party: The people of Duma village in general and the Ein ar Rashash area in particular.

Violation Description:

The Ein ar Rashash area, located to the south of Duma village in southern Nablus Governorate, has been witnessing since the beginning of February of the current year the activities of settler groups rehabilitating and expanding a colonial road that surrounds and controls the entire Ein ar Rashash area, extending across 3000 dunams. This is to connect it with the pastoral outposts in the Jaba'it area to the south, as well as with that outpost in the Ein Fasayil area in the northeast, paving the way for complete control over the Ein ar Rashash area and subjecting it to activities related to colonial expansion.

It is worth noting that, according to field monitoring at the violation site, the road that has been rehabilitated and expanded is more than 3 kilometers long, cutting through the entire Ein ar Rashash area from Ein Fasayil to the outskirts of the Jaba'it area. The settlers have placed "buscourse" material on the road and expanded it horizontally to a distance of six meters, serving colonial activities, knowing that the beginning of every new settlement is a connecting road.

It is worth mentioning that what the settlers are doing today comes after new facts were imposed on the ground in the area, represented by the raid on the Bedouin Ein ar Rashash community in 2024, where settlers forced all the residents of the community to evacuate and leave the area where they had resided for more than forty years. At that time, under the cover of darkness, the Bedouin families who lived there were attacked by settlers, forcing all families to completely evacuate toward the outskirts of Duma village, in a scene reminiscent of the Nakba of 1948 and the abuse and attacks on Palestinian communities that citizens experienced at that time. Today, after the evacuation of the Ein ar Rashash community, settlers completely control the lands of the area and are proceeding with implementing those roads in preparation for beginning expansionist colonial activities there.

For his part, the head of the Duma village council stated:

"The road that settlers have taken control of was partially constructed in 2005 through the village council to serve residents of the Bedouin Ein ar Rashash community and provide services to them amid repeated attacks by both the occupation army and settlers. At that time, settlers damaged it several times, and after the community was evacuated, the settlers rehabilitated it again, expanded its extension, and even prepared it with base course material in preparation for using it for racist expansionist activities. Today, in reality, any Palestinian citizen who is present there is pursued, expelled, or shot at by settlers, and therefore no one can even go to the area for fear for their life."

Duma Town[1]:

The total area of Duma is about 18,318 dunams, of which 376 dunams are built-up area.

It is bordered by Fasayil to the east, Qaryut and Qusra to the west, Majdal Bani Fadil to the north, and Al-Mughayyir to the south.

Bypass road number (458) passes through the village lands with a length of 3,360 m and confiscates about 336 dunams under its path. The occupation controls about 130 dunams as camps for the Israeli army.

According to the Oslo Agreement, 95% of the village lands are classified as Area C, meaning they are under complete Israeli control.

• Area B: 919 dunams.
• Area C: 17,399 dunams.

Land Confiscation Violates International Laws:

What settlers are doing in the occupied Palestinian territories by confiscating Palestinian lands and establishing outposts or expanding settlements on them is considered a violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and their lands, and a violation of international laws and norms. Below are the most important texts in international laws and treaties that prohibit Israeli settlement in Palestinian territories and prevent interference with civil and public rights and properties in occupied countries, as well as relevant United Nations resolutions.

The Lahai Convention of 1907: 

Article 46: The occupying power may not confiscate private property.

 Article 55: The occupying power is considered a manager of lands in the occupied country, and must treat the country's properties as private property.

Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949:

 Article 49: The occupying power has no right to transfer its citizens to the territories it has occupied, or to take any action that leads to demographic change there.

 Article 53: Occupying forces have no right to destroy individual or collective personal property or property belonging to individuals, the state, or any authority in the occupied country. 

Article 147: The destruction and seizure of property not justified by military necessity and carried out on a large scale in an unlawful and arbitrary manner is a serious violation.

Highlights of What Duma Village Has Recently Experienced:

On 19/02/2025, the occupation notified evacuation orders for 73 dunams.

On 04/09/2024, the occupation demolished residential and agricultural facilities belonging to the Zawahir family.

On 15/07/2024, settlers established a new colonial outpost on the lands of Duma village.

On 03/07/2024, the occupation demolished a three-story residential building belonging to the Dawabsheh family.

On 04/06/2024, the Israeli occupation demolished tourism and residential facilities in Duma village.

On 12/05/2024, settlers burned the home of citizen Muhammad Dawabsheh in Duma village.

[1] Source: GIS Unit- LRC.

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

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