‘We sleep beneath the ground to stay on our land’: Life in the caves of Masafer Yatta

In Khallet al-Daba’a, a small Bedouin hamlet in Masafer Yatta – a cluster of Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills – Farida* wakes each morning in the half-darkness of a cave: the same narrow space where she cooks, washes, prays, and sleeps beside her six children. 

The air is heavy with the smell of smoke and soil. There is no door, only a torn piece of fabric fastened to a rock to block the cold wind. 

When dawn breaks, a pale ray of sunlight filters through the cracks of the cave, revealing a few thin mattresses on the ground, blackened cooking pots, and the damp marks running down the limestone walls.

“Before, our life was beautiful,” Farida tells TRT World, remembering the house that once stood above the hill before it was demolished by Israeli forces a month ago.

[Even as TRT World spoke with residents, settlers were gathering nearby, and families urged the crew to depart quickly to stay safe.]

“We had electricity, water, and a bathroom inside. We could rest, we could sleep safely. Now we are forced to go to the valleys for our lavatory needs. We go far, even though we have young men with us for safety, there’s no privacy anymore,” the 41-year-old mother says.

Masafer Yatta lies in an area Israel designated as a military firing zone in the 1980s, known as Firing Zone 918. For decades, Palestinian families like the Farida's have faced the threat of eviction, their homes at the mercy of military orders and settler encroachment.

In 2022, Israel’s Supreme Court approved the eviction of Palestinians living here, a decision that opened the door for the demolitions now accelerating three years later.

Like most families in Masafer Yatta, Farida’s rely on herding sheep, small-scale farming, and a few beehives for their livelihood. After the demolition of all Palestinian homes around the site, the cave has become all they have. 

“All of us together in one space,” she adds. “Before, we had two rooms in our home, a kitchen, a bathroom. Now, I send my sons outside to bathe just so they can have some privacy.”

There is no running water, no electricity, and no quiet. “We fetch the water ourselves. It’s like we went back 25 years,” Farida says.

Her husband, Rafiq*, still carries bruises from the day Israeli soldiers beat him to the ground as they tore down their home. “He tells me, ‘I’ll stay awake, I need to watch over the children,’ but even with the night watch, I can’t sleep. Safety no longer exists in Khallet al-Daba’a.”

Inside the cave, life is waiting for either safety or another raid. “What can we do?” Farida asks. “We live in fear, but we endure. Because if we leave, settlers will take our place the very next day. All this violence is meant to make us leave so they can take the village.”

Farida’s story is only one among dozens in recent weeks, as Israel renews efforts to depopulate the South Hebron Hills.

Masafer Yatta is home to some 1,200 Palestinians whose lives have been turned upside down by Israel’s ongoing demolition and displacement campaign.

That campaign entered a new phase on October 28, when Israeli forces stormed Khirbet Umm al-Kheir, one of the most vulnerable Bedouin communities in the area, handing out final demolition orders for 14 homes, a community centre, and several agricultural structures.

The next day, forces delivered roughly 30 additional demolition and stop-work notices in the Jerusalem neighbourhoods of Issawiya and Za’im, including to families in the Bedouin community of al-Sa’idi.

The Jerusalem Governorate said the orders were part of a systematic effort to “empty the area of its people” and advance Israel’s E1 settlement project, designed to link Ma’ale Adumim with East Jerusalem and cut off Palestinian territorial continuity.

The UN and rights groups say the pace of demolitions has surged since mid-October, coinciding with increased settler attacks under military protection.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel has demolished more than 1,000 structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 2023, displacing thousands in a coordinated effort to empty the land of its people.

This escalation continues despite the International Court of Justice’s July 2024 advisory opinion declaring Israel’s presence in the occupied territories illegal under international law.

Loss of ‘the bride of Masafer’

Once home to around 24 families, Khallet al-Daba’a now stands almost empty. Dina*, 39, and her family of nine are also among those still holding on.

Dina recalls a time when her village was known as “the bride of Masafer.” 

“Settlers and the army surrounded us because of how beautiful this place is. We used to drink coffee in the morning, bake bread with neighbours, and welcome doctors when they came. Our life was simple but peaceful,” she tells TRT World.

That peace is now gone. “Everything; the greenery, the freedom, the hope has vanished,” she adds.

Dina and her husband Hassan*, also both herders and farmers, worry constantly for their five teenage daughters, yet the thought of leaving feels unbearable.

“If we leave this land, we lose ourselves. We’d rather die than abandon it.”

Hassan, who spent six years in Israeli prison under illegal detention, shares her determination.

“He says, ‘I will never leave Khallet al-Daba’a,’” Dina adds. “We live without income, without safety, but still with dignity. God provides.”

In early May, Israeli forces entered Khallet al-Daba’a with bulldozers and excavators in one of the area’s largest demolition operations. Within hours, nine homes, six residential caves, eleven bathrooms, ten water tanks, seven cisterns, four animal shelters, an electricity room, most of the solar panels, and the community centre were destroyed.

When the army withdrew, only four structures were left standing, with nearly 90 percent of the village reduced to rubble.

They came to kill

When Farida speaks about the night her family was attacked last month, her voice breaks. Illegal settlers, she says, aimed for their heads, because they came to kill.

“Six of them came at me,” she recalls. “They hit me on the head and I fainted as they kept beating me with a stick. My hands were covered in blood. I tried to protect my daughter, and they broke both my hands (points to her injuries as she speaks)”.

Her youngest baby, barely two months old at the time, was sprayed with tear gas. “Foam came from her mouth, her face turned red. I thought she died,” Farida says.

Her 14-year-old son, Yusuf*, was beaten on the head and spent five days in intensive care. “He said, ‘Mama, I’m dying, I bear witness there is no God but Allah,’ in preparation for death.”

In early November, demolitions and settler attacks spread even further across the occupied West Bank.

On November 2, Israeli forces carried out extensive demolitions in Gaza City and Khan Younis despite an ongoing ceasefire. Just days later, on November 5, nine demolition notices were issued in the village of Artas, south of Bethlehem.

A similar pattern unfolded in the nearby village of Asfi, where six Palestinian families were informed their homes, tents, and water wells would be destroyed.

For many Palestinians, “home” is not just a roof over their heads; it is belonging and identity.

“Our home holds our laughter, our memories, our peace. When the settlers attacked it, they attacked the most sacred thing we have,” says Dina.

“And if you ask what we want the world to know about Palestinian women, tell them this: The Palestinian woman is made of iron. She is strong, unbreakable. She endures everything and still stands tall,” Dina adds.

Farida speaks with the same fortitude: “They came to kill us. But we won’t die twice.”

*All the names within the article were anonymised for safety.