Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh holds a press conference during a visit to the al-Majaz area in Masafer Yatta where Palestinian villagers reside, to protest the Israeli military holding exercises there. "We will not surrender; we will not give in to their blackmail," says Shtayyeh, adding that the Palestinian government is an integral component of resistance to the occupation. "The Israelis have built settlements on top of the mountain, and they're after us, claiming this land as theirs," says al-Majaz resident Muhammad Issa Abu Aram. In the early 1980s, the Israeli army declared the Masafer Yatta area a restricted military zone, saying it was uninhabited, and that anyone claiming to live there was doing so illegally. The roughly 1,000 Palestinians who live there say it was their people's home long before Israeli soldiers set foot in the West Bank. In early May 2022, Israel's top court ruled against the Palestinians saying they had "failed to prove" their claim to permanent residence before its declaration as a military training zone. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES