Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On 7 June 2021, at around midday, Civil Administration personnel came with a military, Israel Police and Border Police escort, as well as a crane truck, a digger and a bulldozer, to the community of Badu al-Mu’arrajat in the Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated a tent and four shacks that were home to four families, numbering 24 people, including 16 children. They also dismantled and confiscated a shack and four tents used as livestock enclosures, three tents used as livestock pens, three tents used as kitchens, two outhouses, 12 solar panels installed with funding by the Italian nonprofit GVC, and a generator used to operate a water pump.

In addition, on orders of the Civil Administration, two families in the community, numbering 13 people, including six children, were forced to personally demolish three tents that that they lived in, two tents used as livestock enclosures, a tent used as a livestock pen, a tent used as a kitchen, an outhouse and three solar panels, in order to prevent their confiscation if the forces dismantled them.

On 31 August 2016, the Civil Administration confiscated three residential prefabs, a shack used for raising livestock and portable toilets in the community. All the structures were donated to the families by a humanitarian aid organization after the Israeli authorities demolished their homes on 4 August 2016.

On Monday, 31 May 2021, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, a digger, and a truck to the Tal Zif area in the village of Zif, northeast of the town of Yatta in Hebron District. The forces dismantled and confiscated two tents that were home to two families, numbering 20 people in total, including 12 minors. They also demolished a tent used as a livestock enclosure owned by one of the families.

Later that day, at around midday, the forces continued east to the area of Za’atut, east of the village of al-Buweib, where they dismantled and confiscated a prefab owned by a village resident that was used to store agricultural equipment.

On Tuesday, 20 April 2021, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer, and a crane truck to the Wadi a-Rahim agricultural area in Khirbet Susiya, South Hebron Hills. The forces confiscated an agricultural structure and a truck owned by a Palestinian citizen of Israel.

On Wednesday morning, 17 March 2021, at around 10:00 A.M., 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.

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 Khallet 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 Khallet 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 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 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 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 Palestinian Authority’s National Commission against the Wall and the Settlements.