Palestinian family moves to cave after West Bank demolitions

Palestinian herder Mohammed Emar has turned caves in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank into a home for his family after the Israeli army demolished his two houses.

Emar, 33, smoothed the rough limestone floors with concrete, whitewashed the cave walls and added electricity from solar panels and water from a well. He now lives there with his two wives and 11 children.

“We once lived in a house above ground, where you could see the world. But today, we live in an underground cave that resembles a grave,” Emar said.

His wife Fatima Emar said the family first put up tents after houses they built in 2023 were destroyed, before moving into the cave. She said the army had allowed them to live there because the cave had existed “since ancient times”.

Masafer Yatta, a hilly semi-arid area in the southern West Bank, is known for frequent home demolitions and tensions between Palestinians and Israeli settlers. The area is almost entirely under Israeli control under the Oslo Agreements of the 1990s.

The Israeli army says home demolitions are justified when construction is illegal in areas under Israeli control. Palestinians say permit requests are almost always denied.

Emar said he hoped the area’s roughly 1,100 Palestinian residents could one day live safely in houses.