This report focuses on the case of the Awwad family, whose members live in the West Bank town of Turmusaya and who have been besieged in their home since October 2023, barred from farming their land, recieving guests in their home or leaving their home freely. The family’s story serves as a test case that represents the destructive effect Israel’s roadblock and restriction of movement policy has on the daily lives of many Palestinians. A policy that has worsened under the pretense of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip and Israeli security needs.

Shortly after October 7, 2023, soldiers accompanied by security personnel from the nearby settlements blocked the only road leading to the Abu Awwad family compound, which is located approximately two km from the center of Turmusaya. Approximately 25 family members, including 11 children under the age of 18 rely on direct and unhindered access to Turmusaya, where the children’s schools are located, as are clinics and shops. The roadblock has completely altered their lives and gravely infringes upon their rights. Soon after establishing the roadblock, soldiers informed the family that its members were barred from using their vehicles to enter or exit the compound, forcing them  to walk considerable distances in order to buy groceries, attend school and reach the clinics in the town for many months. Soldiers who demonstrated a permanent presence at the site forbade visitors to visit the family compound. The family’s water supply relies on a truck carrying water to a nearby reservoir in a tank. Prohibiting visitors to enter the area, including supply trucks, forced the family to rely on rainwater and they could only hope that the little water that had been stored would last throughout the hot summer months. The family’s livelihood relies on agriculture and was gravely harmed because soldiers repeatedly drove them from their farmland, alleging that they were not allowed to be there “due to the war”.  Then, on January 15, 2024, approximately 30 Israelis arrived from the direction of the settlement Shilo and invaded the compound. They shattered the houses’ windows, broke solar panels used by the family and sprayed offensive slogans reading “death to Arabs” and “revenge” at the entrance.

In February 2024, the family petitioned the High Court of Justice with Yesh Din’s assistance, demanding the roadblock be removed, the siege of the family compound be terminated and farming be permitted to resume. After a series of significant delays, the State Attorney’s Office submitted a preliminary response to the Court on behalf of the military commander; it claimed that the road was blocked due to military needs. And yet, the State’s response showed that there was no sweeping prohibition preventing the family from leaving their home at night, farming their land or receiving visitors. Without this petition, it is doubtful whether the military commander would have given such clear instructions, which in practice freed the family members from the nightly curfew declared by the soldiers, and which they had been subjected to for many months. Despite certain so-called improvements of the terms of their siege following the State’s response, the family’s freedom of movement is still gravely restricted because the main road leading to its home is blocked and the family is de facto at the mercy of soldiers and nearby settlement security personnnel, who supervise their homes and harass the family uninterrupted.

The case of the Abu Awwad family provides insight into the crushing force many Palestinians must live under, a situation that has been exaccerbated since October 2023. Draconian measures applied to the Abu Awwad family members, including a near complete siege, tight military surveillence of their movement in the area, restricting the movement of guests visiting their homes and preventing them from earning a livelihood, coupled with the unsanctioned violence exercised by Israeli settlers create a pincer movement that is seemingly designed to make the family members tire of these circumstances and lead to their explusion from their privately owned land, where they have lived for decades.