Karmei Tzur

Tzur Shalem is an Israeli outpost attached to the Israeli settlement of Karmei Tzur in The Gush Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank. The outpost is under the jurisdiction of the Gush Etzion Regional Council. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.Tzur Shalem was founded in March 2001 in memory of Shmuel Gillis, a senior hematologist at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem who lived in Karmei Tzur. Dr. Gillis was killed by Palestinians earlier in 2001.The outpost, which is just 100 metres (330 ft) from its parent community of Karmei Tzur, started with 6 caravans. By the summer of 2004 it had grown to 22 caravans.In June 2002 Palestinians killed Eyal and Yael Sorek and army reservist Shalom Mordechai in Tzur Shalem. The attack called the legitimacy of outposts in general into question in Israel. Avraham Rotem, a researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, said that a settlement of even five families would require 60 to 80 soldiers along with a vast amount of infrastructure in order to defend it. Rotem claimed that "[a]nything can be defended. But the question is if it is smart, and whether the IDF needs this on its head, and the answer to that question is no. These tiny settlements are an albatross on the neck of the IDF."

Beit Ummar (Arabic: بيت اُمّر) is a Palestinian town located eleven kilometers northwest of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2016, the town had a population of 17,892 inhabitants. Over 4,800 residents of the town are under the age of 18. Since the Second Intifada, unemployment ranges between 60 and 80 percent due mostly to the inability of residents to work in Israel and a depression in the Palestinian economy. A part of the city straddles Road 60 and due to this, several propositions of house demolition have occurred.Beit Ummar is mostly agricultural and is noted for its many grape vines. This has a major aspect on their culinary tradition of stuffed grape leaves known as waraq al-'inib and a grape syrup called dibs. Beit Ummar also has cherry, plum, apple and olive orchards.

The Battle of Beth Zur was fought between the Maccabees led by Judas Maccabeus (Judah Maccabee) and a Seleucid Greek army led by Regent Lysias in October 164 BC at Beth Zur. According to the books of Maccabees, the rebels won the battle, although how significant this victory really was is disputed; it is possible the battle's result was inconclusive. Through a stroke of good fortune for the rebels, the days after the battle likely coincided with news of Seleucid King Antiochus IV Epiphanes's death reaching Judea; rather than continue the campaign, the Seleucid army and Lysias returned to the capital to handle the leadership transition. The Maccabees were able to capture Jerusalem soon after.

The murder of Asher and Yonatan Palmer occurred on 23 September 2011, when a Palestinian stone throwing attack caused Asher, aged 24, to lose control of a vehicle he was driving near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the West Bank, killing him and his infant son. Initially thought to be an accident, it was later deemed a terrorist attack by the Israel Police.Two Palestinians confessed to the attack; a third, who stole from Asher's body, was convicted of theft.

Beracah is a valley mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). It was named the "Valley of Blessings ("blessing" is "Berakhah" in Hebrew) by Jehoshaphat, king of Judah after God’s victory over Moab and Ammon, as is recounted in the Second Book of Chronicles.The valley is on the main road from Hebron to Jerusalem. According to the Chronicler's account, Jehoshaphat gathered his people together and prayed to God for deliverance. God answered his prayer by stirring up the enemy to kill each other. By the time Jehoshaphat and his army entered the valley, the enemy had completely destroyed themselves. The army took three days to collect the valuables of their enemies including gold, silver, and precious jewels: hence the valley was called "The Valley of Blessing".

Nabi Yunis (Arabic: جبل النبي يونس) is the highest point of the Palestinian territories, with an altitude of 1,030 metres (3,380 ft). It is located in the town of Halhul, Hebron Governorate.

Halhul (Arabic: حلحول, transliteration: Ḥalḥūl) is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Hebron in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine. The town, bordered by Sa'ir and Ash-Shuyukh to the east, Beit Ummar and Al-Arroub refugee camp to the north, and Kharas and Nuba westwards, is located 916 m above sea level, and is the highest inhabited place in Palestine. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the city had a population of 22,108 mostly Muslim inhabitants in 2007.According to Jewish, Christian and Muslim medieval traditions, the graves of the biblical prophets Gad and Nathan are located in Halhul. The burial site of prophet Nathan is described as a cave covered in a green color and caged off from the public. Another Muslim tradition places Jonah's grave in the town. The burial sites, formerly designated in the list of Holy Places under Israeli rule, are now under the Palestinian Authority. The Israeli settlement of Karmei Tzur lies on the outskirts of Halhul. Halhul is surrounded by ancient burial caves.

Khirbet Safa (Arabic: خربة صافا) is a Palestinian village located twelve kilometers north-west of Hebron.The village is in the Hebron Governorate Southern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the village had a population of 1,105 in mid-year 2006.

Al-Arroub (Arabic: مخيّم العروب, lit. 'Camp al-'Arrub') is a Palestinian refugee camp located in the southern West Bank along the Hebron-Jerusalem road, in the Hebron Governorate of the State of Palestine. Al-Arroub is 15 kilometers south of Bethlehem, with a total land area of 240 dunums. Since the Six-Day War in 1967, the camp has been under Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 3,647.According to the UNRWA, in 2005, it had a population of 9,859 registered refugees. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the camp's population is 10,487 in 2016.In 2002, two schools were built in the camp: the Arroup Secondary School for boys, and another school for girls.

Kfar Etzion (Hebrew: כְּפַר עֶצְיוֹן, lit. Etzion Village) is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, organized as a religious kibbutz located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem and Hebron in the southern West Bank, established in 1927, depopulated in 1948 and re-established in 1967. It is located 4.7 km east of the Green Line and falls under the jurisdiction of Gush Etzion Regional Council. In 2021, Kfar Etzion had a population of 1,278. The majority of the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

The Kfar Etzion massacre refers to a massacre of Jews that took place after a two-day battle in which Jewish Kibbutz residents and Haganah militia defended Kfar Etzion from a combined force of the Arab Legion and local Arab men on May 13, 1948, the day before the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Of the 127 Haganah fighters and Jewish kibbutzniks who died during the defence of the settlement, Martin Gilbert states that fifteen were killed on surrendering.Controversy surrounds the responsibility and role of the Arab Legion in the killing of those who surrendered. The official Israeli version maintains that the kibbutz residents and Haganah soldiers were massacred by local Arabs and the Arab Legion of the Jordanian Army as they were surrendering. The Arab Legion version maintains that the Legion arrived too late to prevent the kibbutz attack by men from nearby Arab villages, which was allegedly motivated by a desire to avenge the massacre of Deir Yassin and the destruction of one of their villages several months earlier. The surrendering Jewish residents and fighters are said to have been assembled in a courtyard, only to be suddenly fired upon; it is said that many died on the spot, while most of those who managed to flee were hunted down and killed.Four prisoners survived the massacre and were transferred to Transjordan. Immediately following the surrender on May 13, the kibbutz was looted and razed to the ground. The members of the three other kibbutzim of the Gush Etzion surrendered the next day and were taken as POWs to Jordan. The bodies of the victims were left unburied until, one and a half years later, the Jordanian government allowed Shlomo Goren to collect the remains, which were then interred at Mount Herzl. The survivors of the Etzion Bloc were housed in former Arab houses in Jaffa.

The Gush Etzion Regional Council (Hebrew: מועצה אזורית גוש עציון, Mo'atza Azorit Gush Etzion) is a regional council in the northern Judean Hills, the northern part of the southern area of the West Bank, administering the settlements in the Gush Etzion region, as well as others nearby. The headquarters are located adjacent to Alon Shvut. The current mayor of the Council is Shlomo Ne'eman, elected on 14 February 2017. In August 2021, Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon was elected Chief Rabbi of the Gush Etzion Regional Council.