From one house to villages: Israeli settlers have Palestinians surrounded

A family in the South Hebron Hills has spent more than two weeks cut off by settlers camped outside. Israeli siege tactics are spreading across hamlets and villages in the occupied West Bank. Save Share Yousef Shanaran, 52, built a well beside his house, which he can no longer reach. Since October 5, Israeli settlers have besieged his family home in Wadi Rakhim around the clock, a once-quiet corner of the South Hebron Hills among limestone rocks and thorny brush. They are unable to go outside on their own, even to fetch a little water from the well. It took five days for the army to coordinate the family’s access to the well. After running out of water three days earlier, the Israeli army on Tuesday allowed them to retrieve some from the well. “Food, there’s none,” Shanaran, who built the sturdy two-storey house in 2016 on land between the Palestinian town of as-Samu and the village of Susiya, planting about 70 grapevines and 30 to 40 olive trees, told Al Jazeera by phone. “My well, full of water; I built it and lost money on it,” he said. “They keep me from it because they want to get me out of my house.” More than half a year ago, settlers pitched a tent 300 metres (about 1,000 feet) from the Shanaran residence, restricting the family’s movement and exposing them to attacks and intimidation. On October 5, the tent was moved just 30 metres from their home. That day, about 50 settlers attacked the family with sticks and pepper spray. This marked the beginning of the full siege on Shanaran’s home. Nasser Nawajeh, a longtime B’Tselem field researcher who now heads the Susiya village council in Masafer Yatta, has tried to deliver supplies to the Shanaran family during the siege, but most attempts have failed. “Once I tried to bring aid to the people, and right away there was an attack from the settlers,” he told Al Jazeera. “I mean they’re there 24 hours to attack.” Nothing can move in or out of Shanaran’s home without the army’s permission. “This is a displacement policy,” he said. “If they want to take the kids out to school, we have to wait for the army to take them. If you want to bring in food or water, we have to do coordination.” Since October 15, he has kept asking the army for coordination to deliver supplies to the family — and given excuses each day: “‘The army’s busy, can’t come, there aren’t any forces’ — they tell us ‘tomorrow and tomorrow’,” he said....