For more than three weeks, the residents of the eastern Gush Etzion settlements breathed black smoke as a result of a huge fire of tires and electronic waste that burned continuously day and night.
Many trucks unload tires and electrical appliances straight into the flames.
Despite repeated appeals to the authorities - police, firefighting, the Nature and Parks Authority and the Civil Administration, the situation remains unchanged and according to the residents, "each authority rolls the responsibility from one to the other".
Only as a result of the rain that fell in the area was the fire extinguished, apparently temporarily.
Last week, a Gush Etzion council scout saw Palestinian women and children rummaging through ashes and picking up copper wires, apparently for trade.
The burning sites are located in the area defined as the "agreement reserve", a nature reserve in the Judea and Dead Sea desert area that makes up 3% of the territory of Judea and Samaria and was transferred within the framework of the agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the civilian control of the Palestinian Authority and the security of the IDF and is prohibited for construction.
A huge fire lit in the heart of the desert by Palestinians // Photo: Regavim
According to the mapping of the Regavim movement, despite the commitments, there are currently 2,038 illegal Palestinian buildings in the territories of the agreed reservation.
Since the area is under the security control of the IDF and the Civil Administration has no enforcement powers there, the responsibility rests with the army.
For weeks, the residents of the settlements of Sde Bar, Kfar Eldad and Nokodim have been suffering from the severe air pollution, as well as the residents of the village of Zatra and the Palestinians who live in the dozens of illegal buildings scattered in the area.
"Depends on where the wind blows," say the residents, some of whom had to leave the area for hours until the smoke cleared.
"A short tour at the foot of the Herodion reveals a shocking reality. The entire area east towards the Dead Sea is littered with illegal construction and terrible environmental hazards whose consequences affect the flora and fauna in the entire desert," says Moshe Shmueli, field coordinator for the Regavim movement.
"The Palestinian Authority has committed in the agreements to preserve the values of nature, but the reality proves that neither the animals nor the flora nor even the quality of life and health are of interest to them. For them, all means are valid for taking over the territory on the way to establishing a Palestinian state."
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