Khirbat Uyun Kafr Qari (), also known as Uyun Kafr Qari, 'Arab al-Khuli () and Izbat al-'Uyun (), is a depopulated Palestinian village in Wadi Qana region of Qalqiliya Governorate of the West Bank. It lay east of Kafr Thulth in the area known as al-Uyun.
On 27 February 2026, the remaining residents were forced to leave the village following sustained settler violence by settlers from the nearby illegal state-sponsored outpost of Dorot Illit founded by Ben Yishai Eshed (). Their displacement formed a test case for a wider wave of expulsion of Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, which Amnesty International has characterized as a state-backed campaign of ethnic cleansing, and which United Nations human rights experts have likewise described in the context of escalating settler violence and displacement.
History
The site is called after the springs ('Uyun') of the lands of the original Kafr Qari', which was located near Kafr Thulth before its inhabitants relocated to the present city of Kafr Qara in Wadi Ara. Kafr Qara was recorded in the Ottoman tax register of 1597 as a village in southern Jabal Nablus. According to local tradition, the original village was subsequently destroyed following a dispute with inhabitants of Kafr Thulth over land and water, and its population relocated northwestward before 1831.
Remains of the former village, include a cemetery, ruined houses and a mosque. Several local place-names in the lands of Kafr Thulth preserve the name of Kafr Qari' including Uyun Kafr Qara, Khirbat Kafr Qara, al-Qara'na and Wadi al-Qarra'i; and appear in Ottoman land records from 1869 to 1870.
After the older village disappeared, families of Kafr Thulth divided its lands and extended their use eastward to ʿUyun Kafr Qara, whose springs were used for watering livestock and for carrying drinking water back to Kafr Thulth.
The modern village was established in the 1920s by members of the Moqbel family from Kafr Thilith who settled at the site in Wadi Qana. Families from the al-Khuli group of refugees from Abu Kishk joined them after the Nakba. According to research by the human rights NGO Engaged Dharma, some Palestinian families in 'Uyun Kafr Qara arrived the Kafr Saba and Ra'anana area. These refugees introduced citrus cultivation—a staple of the coastal plain largely unfamiliar to local farmers in the Nablus region—to landowners in Deir Istiya. Although offered a share of future profits, the refugees initially declined under the assumption that they would return home before the trees matured; however, unable to return, many settled permanently in Uyun Kafr Qari', establishing the distinctive citrus groves that characterize the wadi today. The community developed around agriculture and livestock raising, which remained the principal basis of local livelihoods into the early 2020s.
Palestinian presence in Wadi Qana historically comprised cultivated lands, grazing areas, and small satellite communities tied to larger parent villages, including 'Uyun Kafr Qari' (affiliated with Kafr Thulth) on the western side, as well as Khirbet Shahada, Khirbet Wadi Qana, and al-Qa'ada (all affiliated with Deir Istiya). Inhabited by dozens of families residing directly on their agricultural plots several kilometers from the main towns, these hamlets maintained strong familial, communal, and logistical ties to their parent villages, with their populations often doubling for four to five months each year during peak agricultural seasons.
From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, Israel established the settlements of Karnei Shomron, Nofim, Yakir, and Immanuel enclosing Wadi Qana, and hindering Palestinian access to native lands in the Wadi.
By 2013, the village received its municipal services from Kafr Thilith.
Demography
In the 2007 Palestinian census, Arab al-Khawla was recorded as a separate locality with a population of 25, comprising 14 males and 11 females living in six households. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics recorded 11 inhabitants in the locality in the 2017 census. In 2014, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded about 85 residents....
Other sources used broader definitions of the community, including dependents, minors and people who resided at the village on a seasonal basis. the MA'AN Development Center estimated approximately 120 inhabitants in 2023, while B'Tselem reported that the community comprised 17 families totaling 107 people, including 49 children, immediately before its displacement in 2026. A March 2026 report on Izbat al-Uyun gave a figure of about 90 people in 11 families from the Moqbel and al-Khuli groups, while Kafr Thulth mayor Jihad Awda later estimated that the community had formerly numbered about 300 inhabitants.
According to B’Tselem, at the time of the expulsion in 2026, the village had dwindled to 17 families, comprising 107 people, including 49 children.
Economy
'Uyun Kafr Qari' was an agricultural village with 2,000 dunams of land. Residents worked the land and raised sheep, goats and cattle. Their livelihoods depended on the produce of land "passed down from fathers and grandfathers to their descendants," according to local sources.
In 2026, the residents owned two cattle herds totaling about 50 cows and nine sheep and goat herds with more than a 1,000 animals.
Israeli settler violence
In 2000, a group of religious youths from the nearby settlements of (Karnei Shomron and Ma'ale Shomron) established the illegal outpost of El Matan on village land.
Critics and human rights organizations argue that Israeli authorities and regional settlements have systematically limited Palestinian access to Wadi Qana through coordinated planning, selective enforcement, and settler activity. The Karnei Shomron local council initiated the "Nahal Qana Master Plan" to incorporate the valley into a regional park integrated with surrounding Israeli settlements, effectively restricting Palestinian use of the area.
This institutional pressure is reinforced by selective regulatory enforcement within the declared "nature reserve." While the Israeli Civil Administration has demolished Palestinian agricultural structures in the wadi, it has overlooked more than a hundred settlement homes built within the reserve's boundaries. Similarly, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, which allegedly operates in Palestine in violation of international law, has uprooted thousands of Palestinian olive trees, citing environmental violations on protected lands established over cultivated Palestinian plots, despite facing criticism for failing to halt the discharge of untreated sewage into the valley from neighboring settlements and outposts.
In addition to state actions, local farmers face ongoing friction from Israeli civilians who repeatedly vandalize Palestinian orchards and agricultural infrastructure (under the "tag mehir" policy). Human rights monitors report that Israeli law enforcement authorities consistently fail to intervene or hold identified perpetrators accountable, contributing to the broader displacement of Palestinian agriculture in the valley. Additionally, the Civil Administration’s Archaeological Staff Officer has faced criticism for citing unsubstantiated archaeological claims to restrict Palestinian farmers from accessing and cultivating their lands in the area.
In 2014, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described Arab al-Khuli as one of two small Palestinian herding communities in the Wadi Qana area. The OCHA recorded repeated harassment by armed settlers which forced 5 families to leave the area during the preceding four years. The UN office identified "security coordinators" from the Israeli settlements of El Matan and Ma’ale Shomron as blocking access when residents attempted to bring fodder or water to their livestock, forcing five families to leave the village. The refugees settled in the surviving villages of Azzun and Kafr Thulth
On 7 June 2017, Israeli forces blocked the life line connecting connecting Kafr Thulth with Uyun Kafr Qara, in order to ease the expansion of Ginot Shomron and the El Matan outpost.
During the 2020s, the inhabitants were subjected to increasing attacks and restrictions associated with nearby Israeli settlements and outposts. In late 2020, settler Eshed Ben Yishai established the illegal outpost of "Dorot" at Khallat Hassan on lands of Bidya, about three kilometres south of the community. Using the outpost as their base of operations, Ben Yishai and his fellow settlers began encroaching on al-'Uyun lands a herd of about 130 heads of cattle. Using violence and intimidation, Ben Yishai progressively prevented residents from grazing livestock and accessing areas they had previously used for generations.
On 13 July 2023, four settlers from Dorot attacked a 13-year-old boy from the community. A few hours later, mob of settlers stormed the village, lynching residents of Arab al-Khuli. Four Palestinians were hospitalized, two of them in serious condition with fractures to their skull and face. According to the Israeli human-rights organization Yesh Din, the attackers set village residences ablaze and looted the local Palestinian a herd of goats, while Israeli soldiers and police helped secure the scene. The settlers also destroyed food, solar panels, and water tanks Following the attack, the Army and police forces detained several residents for a number of hours and prevented Palestinian ambulances from reaching the area. None of the settlers was arrested. Palestinian sources reported that nearly 100 settlers participated and identified some of the attackers as coming from Karnei Shomron. A later Haaretz on what it described as state-sponsored "Jewish terrorism", recorded Eshed's involvement in the attack, as well as in other infringes of Palestinian human rights.
On 7 October 2023, IDF cut the community's water pipe, while settlers and soldiers blocked the three roads leading to it, starving the residents and preventing residents from transporting fodder and water for their livestock. Since then, residents have been forced to navigate bypass routes and carry supplies on pack animals. Settlers also informed residents that they are forbidden from grazing their livestock in the pasture areas and threatened to harm them if they do so.
The community subsequently petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to have a road reopened, through the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and the human rights NGO Bimkom (HCJ 8227/23 Odeh v. Commander of IDF Forces in the West Bank) challenging the military blockades that cut off movement and access to food, water, medical treatment, and livestock feed. In its ruling delivered on 12 March 2024, the High Court rejected the petition after the military commander removed the physical barriers that had enforced a total pedestrian blockade. While the court declined to issue injunctive relief regarding vehicular movement, Justice Yitzhak Amit noted in the judgment that military authorities "must actively enforce" operational guidelines on the ground to fulfill their obligation to protect the "personal safety and property of the protected local population". To reach Kafr Thulth, which is only three kilometers from the community, the residents we were forced to travel approximately 56 kilometers.
Despite the verdict, settler violence continued to reduce community's grazing areas even further, while settlers coming from the direction of the outpost frequently entered the community with a herd of cattle, moved among the houses, and repeatedly damaged fields and property.
On 19 May 2024, settlers intercepted a truck and stole or destroyed nearly three tons of fodder—stealing 40 fifty-kilogram sacks and spilling 18 more—in full view of watching soldiers.