Palestinian Cave Dwellers

They really are cavemen. A modern stone-age family.

But the evil Jooos want to occupy that cave.

Oh, the horrors.

AL-MUFAQARA, West Bank (AFP) - Mahmud Hamamda still lives in the cave his grandfather chiselled out of a rocky hillside in the remote hills of the southern West Bank more than 100 years ago.

But above ground Jewish settlements now huddle on nearby hills, his grazing land has become a special military zone, and Hamamda, a poor shepherd, has had to defy the Israeli occupation so he can remain in his underground home.

His nine children -- who grew up watching television wired to an outdoor generator -- say that given the chance they would prefer to leave the dark and humid cavern and live in real houses.

"It's a new generation, they have a different way of thinking. They want to get married and have a better life," Hamamda's wife Rasmia says.

"But the land is all we have, and if we move the Israelis will take it from us. This is what they want."

The Hamamdas do not know when exactly their forebears moved into the caves, but Mahmud says his grandfather dug out the first of the 25 caves sometime around the turn of the last century. Today they house more than 150 people.

It's a wonderful life.