my-server
← Wiki

Khirbet al-Marajim

Khirbet al-Marājim (Arabic: خربة المراجم), also spelled Khirbet al-Marājem or Khirbet al-Marjama, is a small Palestinian community located south of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The hamlet lies in the area classified as Area C under Israeli control.

The community is documented in mapping and rights-monitoring projects including those of Bimkom, PHTrail, and others focused on the plight of “unrecognized” Palestinian localities.

Location & Coordinates

Bimkom's “Mobile Pastoralist Communities” database locates Khirbet al-Marājim among small hamlets in Area C of the Nablus governorate, under the grid index used for West Bank planning documents. According to the same database and overlay-map layers, the approximate geographic coordinates are 32.2340° N latitude, 35.2350° E longitude.

Administrative status

The Israeli civilian occupation authorities deny Khirbet al-Marājim recognizion, making nearly all structures subject to demolition orders. According to Bimkom, this lack of recognition leads to restricted access to basic services and infrastructure.

Demolitions & Displacement

According to Land Research Center (LRC), in 2024 a house in Khirbet al-Marājim was demolished and its occupants displaced — part of a broader pattern of forced displacement of Palestinian communities in Area C. More broadly, humanitarian reporting by UN OCHA documents a sharp increase in demolitions in 2025 across the West Bank, with nearly 900 Palestinians displaced so far this year due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits — a trend that affects hamlets such as Khirbet al-Marājim.

Settler violence

Khirbet al-Marājim has suffered violent attacks by Israeli settlers. On 14 March 2025, armed settlers attacked the hamlet, burning six homes and a vehicle, and injuring residents. Photographic evidence of destruction and resident displacement from these incidents has been published by the group ActiveStills.

Living conditions & Humanitarian context

Because the hamlet lacks planning approval, residents of Khirbet al-Marājim have no formal access to basic infrastructure (water networks, electricity, paved roads), relying instead on rain-fed cisterns, occasional water deliveries, generator or solar for electricity, and unpaved tracks.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), recent campaigns of demolitions, forced displacement, and systematic restrictions on Palestinian communities in the West Bank — including Area C hamlets — amount to practices that may violate international humanitarian and human rights law. While Khirbet al-Marājim is not always named explicitly, its circumstances mirror those described in HRW's 2025 report on forced displacement policies.

Recent developments

On April 4, 2016, Jamal al-Taweel and Hisham al-Jabrawi's 2 homes at Khirbet al-Marajim near Duma were demolished. On August 10 of the same year, village resident Moussa Muhammad Salman, an 85-year-old man, died after being run over by a motorbike, reportedly driven by an Israeli settler. In incident, which took place while, astride a donkey, he was herding his flock of sheep, occurred near Khirbet al-Marajim. His donkey was also killed. A week later, Israeli bulldozers razed a one-room structure owned by Tariq Dirawi in Khirbet al-Marajim.

In 2025, increased demolition activity as reported by UN OCHA has affected dozens of West Bank communities. A documented settler attack in March 2025, with burning of homes, has drawn media and rights-group attention.

See also

References