Israel demolishes the homes of three families in Khirbet al-Fakhit, Masafer Yatta, leaving 18 people homeless in efforts to expel area residents

On Wednesday, 12 January 2021, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and equipped with bulldozers to the Palestinian community of Khirbet al-Fakhit in Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished nine structures, including three housing units inhabited by three families from the same extended family, leaving 18 people, including 11 minors, homeless. The demolition was carried out by the power of demolition orders delivered on 21 February 2016. The other demolished structures, belonging to the same family, included three livestock enclosures, a livestock pen, a kitchen, and fodder storage and a cistern in the family’s land.

Khirbet al-Fakhit is one of the Masafer Yatta communities whose area of residence was declared “Firing Zone 918” by the military in the 1980s as part of Israel’s efforts to expel them. Twenty-two families live in the community, numbering 180 people. Most community structures face immediate risk of demolition after the families have been issued demolition orders. Although the area was declared a "firing zone," community residents tried to obtain permits for their homes retroactively. To that end, they even submitted an outline plan that could have allowed it if approved. These attempts, which were hopeless from the outset, failed after the Civil Administration Planning Committee, the Israeli District Court and the High Court of Justice rejected their requests. In early January, HCJ judges rejected the residents' last petition, and now the Civil Administration has begun enforcing the demolition orders.

Filmed by Basil al-Adraa, Eid Hazalin and Itai Feitelson