On Monday, 19 July 2022, at around 10:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer, crane and pickup truck with a trailer at the area of ‘Ein al-Beida in the community of al-Jawaya, southeast of the town of Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished the home of a family of three, demolished and confiscated three tents, two of which were used as livestock enclosures and one as a rent tent, and confiscated three water containers owned by shepherds.
The community was established in the late 1960s by residents that Israel had expelled from the South Hebron Hills, on private lands owned by the residents of the villages of Kfar Malek and al-Mughayir. In 2020, about 120 people lived in the village and made a living by herding sheep. Over the next two years, additional seasonal herding communities were established near it, al-Kabun and Wadi a-Dahlia, and the total number of residents in these communities reached 280. In 1975, the settlement of Kochav HaShahar was established nearby. Over the years, the residents of the community suffered harassment by Israeli authorities, including the demolition of the homes of six families in 2021. In 2018, the outpost "Micha's Farm" was established two kilometers away from the community. Since then, the members of the community have suffered from verbal abuse, harassment, theft, and vandalism of property. In 2020, the residents of the community established a school for their children, who had until then been forced to walk a long distance to the schools in al-Mughayir, but the Civil Administration issued demolition orders that same year and confiscated equipment intended for the expansion of the school, including chairs used by the students, just four days after the beginning of the school year. The violence increased in 2022 under the auspices of the military and, in the beginning of July of that year, the residents of the community decided to leave their place of residence after realizing that they would no longer be able to make a living from shepherding in this area and that their lives were in danger. Read more...
On 7 July 2022, at around midday, Jordan Valley Settlement Council personnel arrived with a military and Israel Police escort and a garbage truck to two vegetable stalls along Route 60, near the villages of ‘Ein al-Beida and Bardalah, and dumped the goods from the stalls, belonging to three Palestinian area residents, into the truck.
On Tuesday, 5 July 2022, at around 12:30 P.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and equipped with a bulldozer at the community of Birin, northeast of the town of Yatta in Hebron District. The forces destroyed agricultural land, uprooted 10 trees and demolished a fence and two water containers used for irrigation.
On Monday, 4 July 2022, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and equipped with three bulldozers at the community of Khirbet Um Qusa in the South Hebron Hills and demolished the home of a family of 15, including 10 minors, as well as a house under construction slated to house a family of seven, including five minors. From there, the forces continued to the Za’atut area, east of the village of al-Buweib, where they dmeolished a cistern and fundations of an agricultural structure that was demolished by the Civil Adiministation on 30 June 2022.
On Thursday, 30 June 2022, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort from the Um al-Kheir area to the village of a-Rifa’iya, east of the town of Yatta. The forces demolished an unused agricultural structure belonging to a resident of Hebron. The forces then continued east to the Za’atut area, east of the village of al-Buweib, where they demolished another unused agricultural structure belonging to a resident of Yatta. During the demolition, the Israel Police erected a flying checkpoint on the road between the neighborhood of Khalet al-Hajar and the central part of the village of al-Buweib and confiscated an unlicensed car.
On Wednesday, 29 June 2022, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with military escort at the current place of residence of the Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa community in the northern Jordan Valley, which was destroyed by Israel in July 2021. The forces delivered six families, numbering 38 people in total, including 23 minors, orders instructing them to evacuate their homes for military training for three consecutive days: on 4 July, between 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M.; on July 5, between 7:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M; and on July 6, Between 6:00 A.M. and 11:00 A.M. Military training in the communities’ territory is a deliberate harassment of their residents in an attempt to drive them out of the area. The last evacuation of community residents on the pretext of training occurred in April 2021.
On Monday, 27 June 2022, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. The force demolished two residential tents, a kitchen tent and a tabun (traditional oven) belonging to two families numbering 15 people in total, including 11 eleven minors. The families live in the community nine months a year and leave for the summer. The force also demolished two tents that served as livestock pens, a tent used as a chicken coop, a tent used for storage and five tents used as tabuns, owned by four other families from the community that also leave for the summer. In addition, the force demolished a rainwater cistern, a trailer, a water container and a hospitality tent the head of the council put up for community members to use, as well as uprooting trees.
After Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled the state can expel some 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in an area it designated “Firing Zone 918” in Masafer Yatta, the South Hebron Hills, the military informed the Palestinian DCO that troops will be training in the area for a month, every Tuesday and Wednesday, from 12:00 to 6:00 P.M. On the morning of 21 June 2022, the military placed targets around the community of Khirbet al-Maghaz. Some of the targets were placed on a water container, on a tractor wagon and on sheaves of straw. At around 3:00 P.M., two Merkava tanks approached the community along with an infantry troop. The force advanced slowly, with the tanks emitting blue camouflage smoke and damaging farmland. When it was about 100 to 150 meters from the community, it turned back and left. On 22 June 2022, at around 12:00 P.M., a military force left a base within Israel’s borders and headed northeast, arriving at an area that lies between the communities of Khirbet al-Markaz and Khirbet Jenbah in Masafer Yatta. Upon arrival, the force, which included tanks and two bulldozers, stayed motionless for some three hours. It then advanced into farmland and entered a harvested wheat field. Community residents heard explosions, apparently caused by shelling from the tanks. The force then advanced east to the outskirts of Khirbet al-Fakhit, where it stopped for about 15 minutes, during which about 20 infantry soldiers trained in the fields with a helicopter flying low above them. The soldiers destroyed part of a wheat field that had not yet been harvested. Several activists protested the training. Soldiers pushed some of them, knocking them to the ground. Two Israeli activists were detained for about 15 minutes.
1 June 2022Ein al-Meyteh (Hamam al-Maleh), al-Burj (Hamam al-Maleh), al-'Aqabah
On Wednesday, 1 June 2022, at around 5:00 A.M., members of the Jordan Valley settlement council went to the villages of ‘Ein al-Meyteh, al-Burj and al-‘Aqabah and the Ihmeir area, all in the Jordan Valley, with a military escort and tow trucks. The forces confiscated 22 vehicles, nine of them agricultural, and two trailer water tanks, on the pretext that they had been brought into Firing Zone 900 without a permit.On 15 May 2022, Jordan Valley settlement council staff and soldiers stopped Palestinian farmers from harvesting their crops near the communities of Khirbet al-Malih and Khirbet Um al-Jamal in the Jordan Valley, detained them and seized vehicles.
On Wednesday, 1 June 2022, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and equipped with two bulldozers at Khirbet al-Fakhit in Masafer Yatta. The forces demolished the homes of two families numbering 13 people in total, including seven minors, and two storage sheds for fodder and farming equipment, which were all rebuilt after being demolished by the Civil Administration on 11 May 2022. From there, the forces continued to Khirbet al-Markaz in Masafer Yatta, where they demolished the homes of two families numbering eight people in total, including two minors, which were also rebuilt after being demolished by the by the Civil Administration on 11 May 2022. On 4 May 2021, Israel’s High Court of Justice approved the forcible transfer of more than 1,000 residents of the Masafer Yatta area after the military declared their area of residence as “Firing Zone 918.”
In the early afternoon of Tuesday, 31 May 2022, Jordan Valley settlement council staff arrived with a military escort in Kh. Humsah al-Foqa in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces confiscated a car, a tractor and welding equipment from farmers who were harvesting their crops, on the pretext that the area is off limits.
Jordan Valley: On Wednesday, 25 November 2020, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military jeep escort, police officers, two bulldozers and a truck crane at the village of Fayasil a-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated the foundations of two shacks intended to house an extended family of seven, including two children. The shacks were donated to the family by a humanitarian aid organization after the Civil Administration demolished their homes last September. Later, the forces demolished two shacks that housed a family of ten, four of them children, as well as a kitchen, a cement outhouse, and two metal-plated tin-roofed shacks that the family used to raise livestock. The forces also destroyed a fence and disconnected the shacks’ electricity grid. In addition, the forces demolished ten shacks that were used by two families and included a toilet, fodder storage, stables, a chicken coop and tabun ovens. They also destroyed wheat and almond husks that were used as livestock fodder.
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Demolition of structure in Fasayil a-Tahta. Photo by 'Aref Daraghmeh, B'Tselem, 25 Nov. 2020
At around midday, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military jeep escort and a crane truck at the community of Tal a-Smadi, northwest of the village of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated a shack that was home to a couple, as well as an outhouse and a water container donated to them by a humanitarian aid organization after the forces demolished the same structures on 21 October 2020.
Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills: The same day, around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with Border Police officers at the community of Khirbet a-Rakeez in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills and demolished two structures that were home to a family of six, including three children. They also demolished a structure used for agriculture that belonged to another family in the community. The forces continued south to Khirbet a-Sarurah, where they demolished an outhouse owned by a community resident. They then continued further south to the community of Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’, where they demolished two structures under construction intended for two families, numbering 11 people in total, including seven children, and another structure that contained a toilet and a kitchen. From there, they went to the community of Mughayir al-‘Abid, where they demolished two structures used for agriculture that belonged to a community resident. The forces also cut and destroyed a two-kilometer water line servicing the communities of al-Fakhit, a-Safai, Mughayir al-‘Abid and a-Taban. The water line, donated by humanitarian organizations, cost almost 100,000 EUR to install. The Civil Administration already destroyed Masafer Yatta’s main water supply pipeline in February 2019, but it has since been restored. In October 2020, the Civil Administration destroyed a local pipeline servicing the communities of Mughayir al-‘Abid and Khirbet al-Majaz.
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Demolition of structure in Masafer Yatta. Photo by Nasser Nawaj'ah, B'Tselem, 25 Nov. 2020
Finally, the forces arrived at the community of Khirbet Jenbah, where they destroyed a plastic water container a community resident placed on his farmland to water his olive grove. In order to make their way to the container, the forces uprooted four olive trees and demolished a wire fence around the plot. Some of the demolished structures were donated to the communities by humanitarian aid organizations.
The same day, Israel demolished a house under construction in a-Lubban a-Gharbiyah, Ramallah District At around 6:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with soldiers, police officers and a bulldozer at the village of a-Lubban a-Gharbiyah in Ramallah District. The forces demolished the foundation of a structure under construction (a floor and posts) intended for a family of eight, including six children. They also demolished a shack owned by another resident that was used for storage. The demolitions were carried out by power of Military Order 1797.
