TREY HORVATH

A young girl demonstrates her resolve during a protest at the concrete wall that seals off Palestine's West Bank from the rest of Israel.

Every week for the past twelve years, residents of this village bordering Israel's "Separation Barrier" protest the theft of their lands by the encroaching wall, which has been built far inside of Palestinian territory.

A Palestinian man looks out over a large Israeli settlement on the Palestinian side of the Green Line, the 1967 armistice boundary of the West Bank and Israel. The wall snakes around the settlement, protecting the outpost and it's roadways, and cutting off Palestinian villages from their agricultural lands.

These settlements are illegal according to UN Security Council resolutions and the Fourth Geneva Convention and have been condemned by the international community. Despite these prohibitions, the Israeli government continues to build in the West Bank and offers economic incentives for Israeli citizens and foreign Jewish immigrants to live there.

It is estimated that over half a million illegal settlers are currently living in the West bank.

Protesters make their way to the wall for their regular weekly demonstration.

A sprawling illegal Israeli settlement dominates the horizon, built on former agricultural land forcibly appropriated from the Palestinian villages in the area.

A young boy throws rocks at the Separation Wall during a demonstration, a common expression of frustration and resistance against the Israeli occupation.

A law passed in 2015 treats stone throwing as an act of terrorism, and carries a penalty of at least three years, and up to twenty years in prison, even for minors. Families of those arrested are stripped of state benefits during the incarceration.

A youth stands defiant after launching a stone over the wall with a handheld slingshot.

Young male adolescents are often the front lines of Palestinian protests, seething with frustration and hatred for the occupiers who have beaten, shot, jailed, maimed, and killed their friends and family members.

A street corner in the West Bank city of Bethlehem is dominated by the Israeli Separation Wall, a potent daily reminder to Palestinians that they are living under military occupation.

The 25 feet (8 meters) high and over 435 miles (700km) long concrete barrier, bristling with ominous watchtowers, barbed wire, and security cameras, divides Palestinian communities and severs access to Palestinian agricultural land.

Built during the Second Intifada (2000-2005) to stop the wave of violence and unrest from entering Israeli territory, the Israeli government argues it a necessary security measure to protect its people from terrorist attacks.

Opponents of the Wall claim that it is being used as a political tool to restrict Palestinians' freedom of movement, annex land, and undermine peace negotiations by creating a physical barrier that significantly deviates from the accepted borders of 1949 "Green Line" armistice agreement.

Two Palestinian women walk next to the Wall in Bethlehem. The Barrier has been absorbed into the daily life of the city itself, and is covered in colorful graffiti and street art.

Graffiti on the Wall in Bethlehem.

Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers patrol the Wall inside Bethlehem's Aida Refugee Camp.

Aida Camp was established by the UN in 1950 and is now home to over 5,000 people living on a tiny area of only 0.71 square km. Due to its immediate proximity to the West Bank separation barrier, constant surveillance and military presence in the camp create daily friction between the residents and the occupying forces: shows of force, harassment, and home raids are frequent.

An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) solider stands guard within the H2 Jewish settlement area in the center of the Palestinian city of Hebron.

Many soldiers stationed at checkpoints in high-conflict areas are inexperienced conscripts, as young as 18 years old, fulfilling their compulsory years of military service (2 years for every female, 2 years and 8 months for every male). Tension and anxiety run high, and IDF soldiers are often accused of being too quick to escalate situations and trying to incite violent reactions from Palestinians.

A girl and her father, residents of Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem, pose with an array of riot control weapons regularly used by the IDF against Palestinians living near the wall.

Aida Camp was established by the UN in 1950 and is now home to over 5,000 people living on a tiny area of only 0.71 square km. Due to its immediate proximity to the West Bank separation barrier, constant surveillance and military presence in the camp create daily friction between the residents and the occupying forces.

A Palestinian man shows off a concussion grenade frequently employed by the IDF during street demonstrations and home raids in Aida Camp.

In addition to using sound grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets to suppress unrest, the Israeli military has also been accused of abusing riot-control weapons to incite violent reactions in order to justify heavy-handed countermeasures such as curfews, arrests, home raids, and demolitions to further control and antagonize the Palestinian population.

Some locals even accuse the soldiers of even more sinister tactics, such as planting booby-trapped toys where children will find them.

This man lost three fingers to a tennis ball filled with explosives.

A Palestinian family passes a checkpoint separating H1 and H2 areas in the city of Hebron, an Arab city containing an Israeli settlement directly in its center.

Hebron has been physically divided in two: Area H1 is a typical West Bank city administered by the Palestinian Authority, whereas Area H2 is heavily restricted area home to around 700 Jewish settlers and thousands of IDF soldiers.

Since the settlers moved into Hebron, accompanied by a force of four soldiers to every one settler, most of the Arab inhabitants of H2 have either abandoned or been forced from their homes.

Life is difficult and growing harder due to threats, vandalism, and assault from the settler population and from discrimination and harassment by the Israeli military. Repeated stops for identification checks and restrictions on which streets they can walk are daily realities for Palestinians still living in Hebron H2.

Concrete barriers cut through Hebron's old city, segregating Israelis and Palestinians literally from house to house.

Hebron has been physically divided in two: Area H1 is a typical West Bank city administered by the Palestinian Authority, whereas Area H2 is heavily restricted area home to around 700 Jewish settlers and thousands of IDF soldiers.

Since the settlers moved into Hebron, accompanied by a force of four soldiers to every one settler, most of the Arab inhabitants of H2 have either abandoned or been forced from their homes.

An Arab man sells locally-made keffiyas, the scarf symbolizing Palestinian resistance movement, on the street outside his former shop.

After unrest sparked by the Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre in 1994, in which a Jewish extremist killed 29 and injured 125 Muslims at prayer in the Ibrahimi Mosque, Palestinians were banned from the main thoroughfare, Al-Shuhada Street, and forced from their homes and shops in Hebron's city center. They returned to find the doors of their shops welded shut and many of their homes taken over by Jewish settlers.

Occupied by Israel since 1967, the land to the east, north and south of Jerusalem's Old City is predominantly populated by Arabs.

Since 1967, over 14,000 Palestinians have been removed from their homes in East Jerusalem in an effort to expand Jewish influence in the city.