On Tuesday, 24 August 2021, Israeli troops trained with heavy machinery close to homes and to the school at the entrance to the village of Tayasir in the northern Jordan Valley. The training, which endangered the residents, provoked protest. Village youths began throwing stones at the soldiers, who responded by firing tear gas canisters at them and at the school. Some of the youths suffered gas inhalation and were taken to the local hospital.
On Sunday, 15 August 2021, the Israeli military began training in various parts of the Jordan Valley. The forces, which included tanks, spread out in the communities of Khirbet Samrah, al Farisiyah, al-Burj, Khirbet al-Malih and other places in the area, and prevented shepherds from grazing their herds. The maneuvers, which included shelling, ended on the afternoon of Thursday, 19 August 2021. During the training that day, several shells hit the Khirbet Jabaris area southeast of Khirbet Ibzik, destroying a tent used as a rest stop for shepherds. On Monday, 16 August 2021, Civil Administration personnel came to the community of Khirbet Ibzik and informed one of the families that they had to vacate their home on 22, 25 and 31 August, for two days at a time, due to military training planned in their area of residence. In addition, two families from the community received stop-work orders for two tents they owned. The military’s training routine in the Jordan Valley is part of Israel’s long-standing policy that endangers the lives of residents and harms their livelihood. The policy aims to make the lives of Palestinian communities unbearable and force them out, ostensibly of their own free will.
On Monday, 16 August 2021, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and two bulldozers at the Khirbet ‘Atuf area in the northern Jordan Valley. They demolished a dirt road that connected the community to the agricultural area. In addition, they demolished an agricultural structure belonging to one of the community’s farmers. From there, the forces continued north to the village of Bardalah, where they cut down some 100 olive trees.
Today, Wednesday, 11 August 2021, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer and digger to the community of Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’ in Masafer Yatta, an area in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished a cistern used by area farmers to irrigate crops.From there, the forces continued southeast to Khirbet al-Fakhit, where they demolished a livestock enclosure and an agricultural shack. The forces then returned to Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’ and demolished a tin-roofed cement structure that housed a family of 11, including 5 minors.The forces then continued to the Za’atut area, east of the village of al-Buweib, where they destroyed a cement fence erected by the residents around a farm under construction, as well as a tent used by the workers and two cisterns.
5 August 2021Badu al-Mu'arrajat center, al-Mukasar, Sa'ir, Hizma
75 People, 47 of them minors, were left homeless by the demolitions 5 August 2021: Israel demolishes homes and agricultural structures near Jericho and Hebron On Thursday morning, 5 August 2021, at around 6:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a crane truck to the al-Ka’abneh community in Badu al-Mu’arrajat, west of Jericho. The forces dismantled and confiscated two tents that were home to a family of 10, including six minors, as well as two livestock pens belonging to the family. On 7 June 2021, the Civil Administration demolished structures owned by the family and by the father’s two brothers. From there, the forces continued to another residential compound of the al-Ka’abneh tribe, where they demolished a shack that was home to 17 people, including 14 minors, and razed land around the house. The forces then continued to the Ramon al-Mu’arrajat area. There, they demolished four ancient wells renovated in 2015 with funding by the Italian nonprofit GVC. The wells were used by 12 local families for drinking and farming. That morning, around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel also came with a military and Border Police escort and four bulldozers to the town of Sa’ir in Hebron District, where they demolished two two-story residential buildings, both unoccupied. At the end of the demolition, young Palestinians began throwing stones at the soldiers and police officers, who hurled tear gas canisters and fired rubber-coated metal bullets at them. 4 August 2021: Israel demolishes homes, shops and agricultural structures in Jordan Valley, near Jerusalem and in Sabastiya On Wednesday, 4 August 2021, at 3:00 A.M., Jerusalem Municipality personnel came with a Border Police escort, a bulldozer and cranes to the village of Hizma northeast of Jerusalem, which lies mostly within Area C. The forces demolished 13 shops made of concrete with tin roofs, including a hardware store, an auto parts shop and a grocery store. They also demolished the fence of a nearby house and a car wash. At 11:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a bulldozer to the western side of Sabastiya, a town that lies northwest of Nablus. The forces demolished a tin-roofed concrete structure used for agricultural storage and a room used as a rest stop for farmers. At midday, after carrying out demolitions in Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley, the forces continued south to the community of Zra’ ‘Awad (al-Mukasar), where they demolished a tin-roofed concrete structure belonging to a family of 15, including six minors. At around midday, Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a truck to the al-Qanub area, east of Sa’ir in Hebron District. They demolished a tent belonging to a family of eight, including four minors, and a water container for livestock. At around 1:30 P.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to the Wadi Rahal area south of Bethlehem and demolished a tin-rooefd structure used for storage and as a rest stop for farmers.
This morning, Wednesday, 4 Aug. 2021, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort, laborers, a bulldozer and a crane truck to the community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated structures owned by 3 families numbering 25 people in total, 17 of them minors: 4 residential tents, 7 tents used as livestock enclosures and 3 livestock pens. The forces also demolished two generators, two solar panels, parts of a third solar panel and two cars belonging to community residents. The families were left homeless under the blazing sun in the height of a heat wave.
On Thursday, 15 July 2021, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort, a bulldozer, and a crane truck to an area of Humsah al-Foqa, where nine families who were expelled from their homes last week have relocated for the time being. The forces confiscated a tent put up by one of the families, numbering 11 people, including six minors, at a certain distance from the other tents. Later that day, at around 9:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a bulldozer to the village of Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley, where they demolished a pool set up by the local council about a year ago to provide residents with water for domestic and agricultural use. The floodwaters created during the demolition hit nearby livestock enclosures, killing one of the rams.
On Wednesday, 14 July 2021, at around 5:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and 10 crane trucks to the al-Qabun area, where some residents of the Ras a-Tin community stay during the summer. The site is about two kilometers north of the community’s permanent residence, which lies east of Ramallah. The forces declared the area a closed military zone, denied access to journalists, and began dismantling and confiscated 16 residential structures, 19 livestock enclosures, 45 solar panels, seven mobile water containers, and two tractors belonging to 13 families, numbering 84 people in total, including 54 minors. Filmed by: Fares K'aabneh
On Monday, 12 July 2021, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and three bulldozers to the town of Bani Na’im in Hebron District. The forces demolished about 200 square meters of agricultural terraces, a fence put up at the village entrance and a shed used for storing agricultural equipment. From there, the forces continued south to the communities of Khirbet Um Qusa and ‘Abdiyeh in the Um Daraj area. They confiscated a prefab set up by residents, which served as a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders, serving over 400 residents. At the same time, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a bulldozer to the agricultural area of Bardalah Marah, which extends about a kilometer from the Bardalah village center, and demolished an agricultural pool. The pool was built in cooperation between the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture, and was used to irrigate the crops of several area farmers. These are not exceptional cases. Rather, they are part of Israel’s routine harassment of Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills and northern Jordan Valley, in a bid to expel them from their homes and area of residence.
7 July 2021خ. حمصة, Kh. Humsah, Kh. Humsah al-Foqa
On Wednesday, July 7, 2021, around 8:00 A.M., soldiers and Civil Administration staff arrived at the community of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces declared the area a closed military zone and denied journalists, human rights activists and diplomats access. The forces dismantled nine tents and four huts used as residences, as well as 17 agricultural structures, all together belonging to nine families with a total of 61 members, including 34 minors. The forces also destroyed four water tanks, water lines, fencing and farming equipment. The residents’ belongings were loaded onto trucks that transported them to the ‘Ein Shibli community, which lies west of Khirbet Humsah. Community members fled to the mountains with their flocks, leaving the buses brought in to forcibly relocate them to ‘Ein Shibli empty. Fore more information click here.
In the morning hours of Thursday, 24 June 2021, Civil Administration personnel escorted by soldiers and equipped with a bulldozer came to the area of Badu a-Mu’arrajat-East, where the settlement of Mevo'ot Jericho was established. They destroyed a tin structure with a concrete floor that served as a food kiosk and was owned by a resident of the community. The forces also uprooted the kiosk’s road sign and disconnected the structure from electricity. On 16 June 2021, the Civil Administration had issued the kiosk owner a demolition order. The owner built the kiosk in February 2021 to support his family, which includes six minors.
On 23 June 2021, at around 6:00 AM, soldiers came with a bulldozer to the Masafer Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills, and dug ditches in several parts of a 2 k”m long dirt road that connects Masafer Yatta to the town Yatta and to the surrounding villages. In addition, the security forces destroyed a water line that served around 12 communities in the area, leaving dozens of families without water supply. On 9 June 2021, the military destroyed roads and a water line that served 15 families in Masafer Yatta. The military repeatedly blocks roads and destroys water supply infrastructure in this area, as part of the authorities’ routine harassment of Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills, particularly in Masafer Yatta, in its bid to expel them from their homes and from the area in which they reside.
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.
