Facing Expulsion

On Wednesday morning, 17 March 2021, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a tow truck to Khirbet Khilet a-Dabe’ in Masafer Yatta, an area in the South Hebron Hills. The forces dismantled an agricultural tent and confiscated it.

Around the same time, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, a digger and two crane trucks to the community of a-Nuwei’mah al-Foqa, north of Jericho. The forces demolished a shack and dismantled and confiscated 10 tents. These structures were the seasonal dwellings of 11 families numbering 66 people in total, 28 of them minors. In addition, the forces confiscated nine plastic water containers, each of them one cubic meter in volume. This was after the Civil Administration had demolished four tents and two shacks that were the seasonal dwellings of six of the families – 28 people in total, 14 of them minors – on 29 December 2020.

At around 12:30 P.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort, two diggers and a crane truck to the village of Khirbet Tana, east of Beit Furik. They demolished four tents that were home to five families, numbering 22 people in total, 9 of them minors. The forces also destroyed five tents that these families used as livestock pens.

On Thursday, 11 March 2021, at around 8:30 A.M., soldiers came with a bulldozer to the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills. The forces piled up boulders and sand piles to block access to a dirt road leading from Route 317 to the community of She’b al-Batem. They also destroyed a water supply line that served She’b al-Batem and the nearby community of Qawawis. The two communities are home to 40 families, who were left without a water supply.

The military has blocked the roads leading to She’b al-Batem several times, the last of which was in November 2020, but the residents removed the roadblocks. Blocking roads and destroying water supply lines is part of Israel’s routine harassment of Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills, and in Masafer Yatta in particular, in its bid to expel them from the area and their homes.

On Tuesday, 2 March 2021, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer, and a digger to the community of Khirbet Khilet a-Dabe' in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished two structures housing two families numbering a total of 11 people, including seven minors. They also demolished a vacant structure still under construction.

The forces continued to Khirbet a-Rakeez, where they demolished an agricultural structure and an outhouse belonging to a family that lost two homes following demolitions in November 2020. The forces then went to the village of Zif, where they demolished a livestock pen.

On the previous day (Monday, 1 March 2021), at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, two crane trucks, and a digger to the community of Fasayil a-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated two livestock pens, a water tank and an outhouse belonging to families whose homes were also demolished in November 2020.

On Monday, 22 February 2021, at around 9:00 AM, Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to the community of Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa in the northern Jordan Valley, where Israel has destroyed structures five times in the past few months, most recently on Feb. 16 2020. The forces dismantled and confiscated 12 tents that housed families numbering a total of 74 people, including 41 minors, as well as four tents used as livestock pens. The forces also destroyed six livestock enclosures and confiscated four water tank trailers and an additional four plastic water tanks. The forces also confiscated four unbuilt tents, two of which were set to be used for housing and two for livestock.

The tents and other items were donated to families in the community by the ICRC, the Consortium and the Ministry against the Fence and Settlements in the Palestinian Authority last week.

On Sunday morning, 14 February 2021, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to Khirbet Beit ‘Einun in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces blocked the entrances to the community and uprooted some 300 forest tree seedlings that activists and Tubas council workers had planted after Israeli security forces uprooted and cut down more than 3,000 trees in the area on 27 January 2021.

Later that day, at around 2:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to the community of Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa, where Israel has demolished structures four times, starting with the demolition of the community on 3 November 2020. The forces roamed among the tents set up after the latest demolition on 8 February and threatened the residents they would soon return to demolish their homes.

On Tuesday, 16 February 2021, at around 11:00 A.M., military jeeps arrived at the community during a visit by diplomats from France, the UK and Poland who had brought with them equipment donated by the West Bank Protection Consortium. The forces confiscated two tents the residents had managed to erect and three tents they had not yet pitched.

On Wednesday, 10 February 2021, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the Marj Na’jah area in the Jordan Valley. The forces demolished concrete-and-metal agricultural pool owned by an area farmer, after the Civil Administration delivered him a demolition order a week ago by power of Military Order 1797. .

Later, at around midday, the forces arrived with three diggers and two bulldozers at the community of Khirbet ‘Alan in the al-Jiftlik area of the Jordan Valley. There, they demolished three agricultural pools owned by two community residents after the Civil Administration delivered them demolition orders a week ago by power of Military Order 1797. The Civil Administration destroyed irrigation networks belonging to one of the farmers on 1 June 2020.

On Wednesday morning, 10 February 2021, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort to Khirbet a-Tawamin in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated an outhouse. They then continued to the western part of Khirbet Susiya, where they confiscated a tent that was home to a family of six, including four minors. The forces went on to Khirbet a-Rakeez, where they confiscated an outhouse and three tents, two of which were being used to host activists following the grave injury of community resident Harun Abu ‘Aram (24) at the hands of Israeli security forces on 1 January 2021. The erection of the third tent was underway. From there, the forces continued to the community of Um al-Kheir and confiscated two gas pumps. Finally, they reached the community of Khallet al-Furn, where they dismantled and confiscated a shack under construction.

On Monday, 8 February 2021, at around 11:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came for the fourth time with a military escort, a digger and a crane truck to the community of Khirbet Humsah al-Fouqa in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces declared the community a closed military zone and dismantled nine tents that serves as the homes of 11 families numbering 61 people, including 33 minors. The tents were donated to the community last week by the Red Cross. The forces dismantled and confiscated 12 additional structures, including shade sails, shacks used for storage, and a water container. They also demolished five livestock enclosures. The shacks and enclosures were donated to the community by the Palestinian Authority’s National Commission agianst the Wall and the Settlements.

In addition, the forces confiscated three vehicles that do not belong to the community: a tractor owned by the local council, a vehicle owned by the Palestine Broadcasting Corporation, and another vehicle owned by the National Commission against the Wall and the Settlements.

On Monday, 8 February 2021, at around 9:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort, a bulldozer, and two trucks at the community of Khirbet Yarza, which also lies in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished two prefabs that served as the home of two families numbering 11 people, including seven minors. They also demolished a shack used to house livestock. In late September 2020, the forces demolished the homes of the same families. Since then, Humanitarian aid organizations have donated the new prefabs to the families. In January 2021, The Civil Administration delivered them a warning order to stop destroying antiquities.  

On Wednesday, 3 January 2021, at around 4:00 P.M, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort, and two diggers at the community of Khalet al-Furn, east of the village Bani Na’im in Hebron District. The forces demolished a concrete home under construction owned by a Hebron resident.


The next day, Thursday, 4 January 2021, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a Border Police escort, a bulldozer and a digger at the community of Khallet Taha near the town of Deir Samit, east of Hebron. The forces demolished a concrete home that was home to a family of seven, including five children. In addition, the forces destroyed power lines and confiscated a disassembled tent and rolls of barbed wire.