Hebron / PNN /

 In the village of Sarura in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, the struggle to remain on the land and resist occupation and settler expansion is a daily battle. For Palestinian residents, survival, resilience and attachment to their land are not slogans but lived realities shaped by repeated settler attacks, land seizures and displacement.

Tilal Al-Amour sits with several members of his family in a makeshift shelter with no roof, its walls built from worn-out car tyres to shield them from the winter cold. At night, they gather around an open fire for warmth, keeping watch against potential settler assaults carried out under the protection of Israeli soldiers. Their ordeal began after a settler seized the cave where the family had lived, leaving them homeless.

According to Al-Amour, the settler took advantage of the family’s absence while they were attending a wedding. He arrived with his wife, occupied the cave and prevented the family from returning or living there.

With a few words, Al-Amour sums up his family’s tragedy: “They took the land and the people. Nothing is left — no trees, no stones. People are forced to live outside under trees. They beat the elderly and spared no one.”

Al-Amour said he was shocked to find the settler inside his cave when he returned 14 days ago. “He stood there with his wife and stopped us from coming close, saying the cave was now his,” Al-Amour said. For nearly 16 days, the family has been living in the open after Israeli soldiers demolished a tent he had erected and confiscated the family’s belongings, telling them they were not allowed to remain in the area under what he described as false security claims.

During the day, the family stays outdoors, sitting beneath trees. At night, they return to the tyre-walled shelter, lighting fires to keep warm. They divide themselves into shifts, with some sleeping while others stay awake to protect the family from settler attacks.

Al-Amour compared their current situation with life in the cave, where everything they needed was available. “We had a water well, electricity and trees. Everything was there. We cooked on fire and lived together — my father, his wife, my wife and my children,” he said. Some of his children attend school, while others are university students. “Now we are exposed to the open air, and the army prevents us from even putting up a tent. The moment we placed two wooden poles; Israeli soldiers came and removed them.”

He questioned how the army could prevent his family from erecting a tent while allowing a settler to seize their cave. “We own this cave and have documents proving it,” he said.

Sarura and other villages and hamlets in Masafer Yatta have faced an intensified campaign since the 1980s, led by settlers under Israeli military protection, aimed at forcing residents to leave their land to expand settlements and establish new outposts. In 2022, Israeli forces demolished Palestinian homes and forcibly displaced residents under security pretexts.

In the summer of 2025, Israeli forces evacuated the nearby hamlet of Khallat Al-Dabaa after demolishing all homes and caves and expelling its residents in favour of settlers and colonial interests, declaring the area a closed military zone. Hundreds of farmers were also denied access to grazing lands and crops, stripping many of their right to live with dignity, safety and security.

This story was produced as part of the Qarib projest, implemented by the French Media Development Agency (CFI) in partnership with and funded by the French Development Agency (AFD).

Queen Camilla has spoken for the first time about how she was “so angry” when she was physically attacked on a train as a teenager.

Camilla described the incident in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today show, during which she also praised the courage of racing commentator John Hunt and his daughter Amy, whose family were murdered in their home.

She said she had “kind of forgotten” the experience, but the memory had been hiding for a long time. “Someone I didn’t know…I was reading my book, and you know, this boy, dude, attacked me and I fought back,” she told the program.

“And I remember getting off the train and my mother looked at me and said, ‘Why does your hair stand up?’ and “Why is the button missing on your coat?” “But I remember the anger, and I was so furious about it, and it was sort of hidden for many years.

“And I think, you know, when the whole subject of domestic violence comes up and all of a sudden you hear a story like John and Amy’s, it’s something that’s very close to my heart.”

Louise Hunt, 25, her sister Hannah Hunt, 28, and their mother, Carol Hunt, 61, were killed by Kyle Clifford, 27 – Louise’s ex-partner – in a quiet cul-de-sac in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on July 9 last year.

In the interview on the show, fronted by former Prime Minister Theresa May, Camilla said: “I would just like to say that wherever your family is now, they would be so proud of you both. And they must be smiling at you from above and thinking, my God, what a wonderful, wonderful father, husband, sister.”

Interviewed by Emma Barnett, Hunt said he and his daughter “have come such a long way since July 9, 2024, the day the girls were murdered” and wanted to shine a light on the issue of domestic violence and violence against women and girls.

Hunt said that, more than a year later, “it’s still very difficult, minute by minute. You have to try to find the strength in our position to arm yourself with as many tools as possible that can help you get through the next hour, get you through the next day. We were fortunate to have enough brain power to navigate our way through this quagmire and we found solutions that got us this far.

“I’m amazed that we’re doing this well at this point. There’s still a lot of work to do.”

With the support of Amy, his fiancé and Hannah’s boyfriend, he said: “You gain wisdom and confidence, because this is not the future you wanted, but there is still a little fragment of the future that exists for you.”

Amy, 32, said what had become clear was that “domestic abuse and violence spans across classes, ages and locations”. She added: “There is a large part of us that is still in disbelief in shock. Perhaps we will be in this state for the rest of our lives given the magnitude of our loss.”

Although they missed “every minute of the day,” they were sustained by the “care, joy, positivity and humor” that her sisters and mothers brought into the world.

Misogyny and radicalization of young men online is a huge problem, she said, which “remains largely unchecked”, with tech companies allowing this phenomenon “to run rampant” on social media. His father said that “this very dark world opening up to me in the most stark way possible was shocking. It was something I had to navigate very quickly and I had to educate myself as well.”

His wife and daughters were murdered by Clifford after Louise ended their relationship. The family had struggled to accommodate Clifford during their 18-month relationship, he said. “When things work out so disastrously against you…and I’m still dealing with this now…it’s such a demanding thing to try to figure out how the hell we got to this point.”

The Queen praised their courage in speaking out “in these very difficult circumstances”. Talking could be “cathartic,” she said. “The more you talk about it, the more you can try to rid yourself of these terrible demons and these terrible memories of what happened to you.”

Of her own work highlighting domestic violence, she said “the majority of people don’t want to know. It’s been a taboo subject for so long.”

She added: “I thought if I had a little soap box to stand on, I would like to stand on it.” Some perpetrators may have suffered abuse themselves, she said. “If you can get them early enough and teach them respect for women, I think it’s very important to get into schools.”

Lady May said it was “sad to see” that a young boy going online, for example for health or fitness reasons, “didn’t need many clicks before being directed to really dark and dangerous content” and that algorithms ensured “he was starting to live in an echo chamber”. She added: “You can legislate as much as you want, but ultimately it’s about attitudes and mindsets. »

A fundraising gala was held this month to launch the Hunt Family Fund, established in memory of Carol, Louise and Hannah to raise money for charities and causes that help and inspire young women.