Israeli CA once again digs trench to prevent access to the Palestinian communities of Masafer Yatta

On the morning of Thursday, 31 January 2019, at around 8:00 A.M., Israeli Civil Administration personnel came with a Border Police escort to the region of Masafer Yatta (Greater Yatta) in the South Hebron Hills. They brought a bulldozer and a tractor which they used to dig a deep trench across the road that connects the community of Sh’ab al-Botum with the rest of the Masafer Yatta communities. The Israeli military had already torn up the road a year earlier, in late 2017, and the residents then repaved it. These travel restrictions are but another step in a long saga of harassment by the authorities against the local residents, adopted in an effort to drive them out of their homes and the area.