Umm al-Khair is a Palestinian village located in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the southern West Bank. It was inhabited by five families, roughly 70 people, in 2008. By 2017, the population of the village was 686.

The Palestinian village of Umm Al-Khair, is located in the Masafer Yatta region and Area C of the Occupied West Bank, which is under full Israeli civil and military control. The residents of Umm Al-Khair are a model of resilience in the face of occupation and ethnic cleansing. Their ancestors were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel in 1948 before purchasing the land of their current village. Several decades later, much of their land was confiscated by the Israeli government in order to create a Jewish-only settlement adjacent to the village.

For several years, Umm Al-Khair has been under constant threat of demolition and expulsion as the State of Israel seeks to confine Area C Palestinians into ever smaller areas. The residents of the settlement--just a 2 minute walk away--live in swanky modern homes with government-supplied electricity and running water; Umm Al-Khair residents lack permits to build a sufficient number of permanent structures, regularly purchase overpriced tanks for their water, and rely on donated solar panels for limited electricity. The stark contrast between the settlement and Umm Al-Khair is one of the clearest views of Israel's apartheid system.

Since October 7, the situation in Umm Al-Khair has become worse than residents can ever remember, and the village's neediest families, all of whom have lost their sources of income due to Israeli travel restrictions and settler violence, urgently need our support.

Chronology (ongoing)

On June 27, 2024

in the morning the Israeli army raided the village of Umm Al-Khair and destroyed at least 11 homes and structures in the village, including its community tent. 40 people in the village were now newly homeless.