Isfay al-Fauqa
Isfay al-Fauqa is a small Palestinian herding hamlet in the South Hebron Hills, part of the Masafer Yatta cluster in the Hebron Governorate of the southern West Bank. Like other Masafer Yatta localities, it lies in Area C, and much of the surrounding terrain has been designated Firing Zone 918 since the 1980s. It is distinct from the adjacent hamlet of Isfay al-Tahta, located nearby on lower ground.
Geography
Isfay al-Fauqa lies at an elevation of about 626 metres above sea level at, in the arid uplands east of Yatta. The hamlet is one of several paired localities that structure the South Hebron Hills settlement pattern, with Isfay al-Tahta directly below.History
In the 14th century Isfay was called al-Safiyah and it is mentioned, alongside neighboring Jinba, as a stop on the Gaza-Hebron-al-Karak road.Isfay and its caves appear on the map of the 1870s Survey of Western Palestine
The broader Masafer Yatta landscape has long supported semi-sedentary pastoralism with cave-adapted dwelling and cistern-based water storage. Families in Isfay al-Fauqa use caves both for habitation and for livestock shelter, a pattern documented across the South Hebron Hills.
Isfay is a hamlet of Masafer Yatta where families traditionally resided in caves alongside stone animal pens and cultivated terraces. Though not always listed in every historical survey due to its small size, the village appears in several demographic and geographic studies from the late Ottoman and Mandate periods. Oral history and archaeological remains confirm its permanence as part of the Yatta hinterland.