Khirbet Ibziq, the Jordan Valley:: Another Palestinian community forcibly transferred through settler violence under military protection
8 October 2025
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On Wednesday, 8 October 2025, the last remaining family in Khirbet Ibziq uprooted and joined ten other families who left the community over the previous six months due to harassment and attacks by settlers and the military.
The 11 families, numbering 51 people, including 13 minors, remain nearby and hope to return to their homes. Their current site is a few kilometers southwest of Ibziq, close to the village of Salhab, and in Area B. The children continue to attend the community school located less than 1.5 km away.
Eighteen other families from the community, numbering 117 people, including 65 minors, who spent the winter in Khirbet Ibziq and the summer in the Wadi Shubash area in Jenin District, did not return to their homes in Khirbet Ibziq once again this year, due to settler and military violence.
The Khirbet Ibziq community school, built about eight years ago in the southwestern part of the community, continues to operate, and the Palestinian Ministry of Education shuttles the community’s children from their places of residence near Salhab and in Wadi Shubash. However, the school also suffers from threats and harassment by settlers and soldiers, and the military is threatening to shut it down.
About the community
The community of Khirbet Ibziq was located about ten kilometers north of Tubas. Its land, owned by several families from Tubas, borders the Separation Barrier to the north. When the West Bank was captured in 1967, the site was home to a village with houses made of stone and mud. However, the occupying forces destroyed the village and expelled its residents. Some moved to Tubas, while others went into exile in Jordan and elsewhere. The village’s land stretched over thousands of dunam (1 dunam = 0.1 hectares) and included farmland and hilly areas. Israel declared a large part of it state land or military areas.
In recent decades, several dozen Palestinian families lived there, some year-round and some from October to May, moving elsewhere in the summer months, mainly in the Jenin area. Over the past decade, the community has suffered extensive abuse by Israel, aimed at forcing residents to abandon their homes and land.
In the summer of 2017, the Palestinian Ministry of Education established a primary school in old buildings at the southwestern entrance to the community, which belong to one of the community’s families. It has since become an important part of community life. Donor organizations provided it with solar panels for lighting, and a water line ending near the school has been laid.
The community has faced increasing precarity since the beginning of 2025, partly due to the military’s takeover of the Jabal a-Salameh area between Ibziq and Raba and the establishment of the outpost New Havat Amiael – Har Bezek less than one kilometer west of the school.
- Verbal confrontations and threats