Since the war began, entire areas of the West Bank have been emptied of their communities

One of the largest communities expelled in the months since the war began was from the village of Wadi al-Siq, which is separated from Maghayyir A-Dir only by a beautiful green wadi. Next to the ruins of the village, which are still visible, cows from the nearby outpost that was established only about a year ago are grazing today. The road that used to lead to the village is now blocked with stones.

According to Ibrahim, on the day the residents of Wadi al-Siq were expelled, a group of settlers he knew – and with whom he previously had a good relationship – entered his village. He says they recommended that the villagers evacuate for 10 days because the settlers were "angry" following October 7.

"On October 11, we took the children and women to relatives in another village, to sleep there. We thought it would be for two or three days and then we'd bring them back," relates Abd el-Rahman Mustafa Ka'abneh, from his new temporary residence on agricultural land near the village of Taybeh. The next day, while some of the villagers were busy packing their belongings, settlers and soldiers came and attacked them at the site. Several residents and activists who had come to help them were arrested and detained for hours inside the village. Some were beaten and subjected to abuse, including, as previously reported in Haaretz, severe beatings, burns and attempted sexual assault.

"They stole [the contents of] my whole house. They destroyed and took everything: stove, kitchen utensils, cabinets," Ka'abneh says. "We found almost nothing." In his estimation, the value of the property stolen from the house was about 200,000 shekels ($53,000).