A tragic story of trying to survive as a Palestinian Bedouin caught in illegal settler violence activity in the West Bank:
An extract:
But in 1948, they were expelled from their homes by Zionist paramilitary and later military forces during the Nakba.
Pushed north to the West Bank, controlled by Jordan from 1948 to 1967, they drifted through Masafer Yatta and towards Ramallah, searching for land wide enough to sustain a herding community. In 1967, the Israelis once again forced them out, this time after they captured the West Bank in a war.
“They gave us 24 hours – they expelled us towards al-Muarrajat – no water, in September,” recalled Abu Najjeh. Throughout the 1970s, various Israeli military orders pushed them around different areas in the southern West Bank, and towards Ramallah, he explained. “Since 1967,” he said, “we haven’t rested a single day.”
Around 1980, they finally found what started to feel like home. In the hills east of Ramallah, at a place called Ein Samiya – named for the nearby spring – the community put down roots, remaining there for more than 40 years. The flocks grew to thousands, and the children had a school. “The feeling was one of ease,” Abu Najjeh said, the only moment where the urgency dropped from his voice. “The livestock could graze all the way to the spring at al-Auja, drink, and come back to us. It was a blessed life.”
Starting in the 1990s, the community faced periodic demolitions of their tent homes from Israeli authorities, who almost never grant building permits for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli administrative control. With help from humanitarian organisations like Action Against Hunger, they were able to weather such demolitions.
And on Nakba anniverary, the Israelis were delighted in the killing of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of the armed wing of the Palestinian group in Gaza, also members of his family were killed.
Hamas confirms killing of Qassam Brigades leader in Israeli attack
Israel targeted Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, in an attack that killed seven people.3 mins
A funeral is held for Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commandeer of Hamas’s military wing, and his wife and daughter on May 16, 2026 at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque in Gaza City, Gaza [Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images]
Hamas has confirmed the killing of Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the head of the armed wing of the Palestinian group in Gaza, in an Israeli attack a day earlier.
Hamas condemned Israel’s “treacherous and cowardly assassination” of al-Haddad, who led the Qassam Brigades, in a statement on Saturday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Friday that Israeli forces had targeted and killed al-Haddad, calling him “one of the architects” of the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Hamas said al-Haddad was killed along with his wife, his daughter, and other Palestinian civilians on Friday evening.
The Israeli strikes targeted the Remal neighbourhood west of Gaza City. Three Palestinians were killed in a strike on a civilian vehicle, and four others died in a strike on a building, medical sources said.
Three women and a baby were among those killed, sources told Al Jazeera. Dozens of other people were wounded.
Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili, reporting from Gaza on the attack that killed al-Haddad, said the strikes caused “panic” at the scene as dozens of Palestinians were forced to flee the “massive fire” that engulfed the residential building.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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