image sourced from original article at Israeli settlers prevented Palestinian children from holding a soccer practice in the southern West Bank village of Umm al-Khair after occupying a disputed pitch on Sunday. Footage shared by Palestinian media showed Orthodox Jewish men and boys sitting and standing on the field while chanting a biblical verse as children in sports uniforms watched.
The soccer pitch, built about two years ago with foreign funding, was intended to provide recreational space for the village’s roughly 200 residents. The community is part of the Masafer Yatta area near Hebron, where many Palestinian structures face demolition orders.
The land is privately owned by Palestinians and falls within an area under full Israeli military and civil control, where building permits for Palestinians are rarely approved. In February, Israeli authorities issued a demolition order for the field following a complaint by a settler group that said the synthetic turf posed a threat to the nearby settlement of Carmel.
