Facing Expulsion

Even now, Israeli authorities are continuing to demolish Palestinian property in order to damage the owners’ livelihood, with the goal of taking over their land.

This morning, Thursday, 19 March 2020, at around 7:30, Civil Administration personnel came with a military jeep and two bulldozers to the Palestinian community of al-Muntar, which lies in Al-Quds District southeast of the town of el-‘Eizariyah. The forces demolished two stone structures with a tin roof that were the seasonal home of a shepherd, as well as a shack he used as a livestock pen.

The demolitions were executed pursuant to Military Order 1797, which was issued in April of 2018 and removed the semblance of judicial review.

The forces then demolished a concrete base that a family whose home was demolished last year by the Civil Administration, planned to erect a new residential shack.

Today, Tuesday, 3 March 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a Border Police escort and two bulldozers to the area of Masafer Yatta, which lies in the South Hebron Hills. The forces used sand mounds, rocks and concrete to block the road connecting the communities of of She'b al-Batem and Khirbet al-Fakhit. The blockage extends travel from Khirbet al-Fakhit to the main road (Road 317) by about 5 km. The road has been blocked before - about six months ago - and local residents removed the blockage.

On Sunday, 23 February 2020, at around 8:00 A.M., military forces came with a bulldozer to the South Hebron Hills. The forces used sand mounds and boulders to block access from Road 317 to two roads leading to the community of She'b al-Batem. The Civil Administration had blocked access to this community several times last year, and local residents removed the roadblocks.

On thursday, 27 February 2020, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a Border Police escort, military jeeps, a bulldozer and a digger to the Palestinian community of Khirbet a-Safai a-Tahta in the area of Masafer Yatta, which lies in the South Hebron Hills. About 22 people live in the community. The forces demolished a shack used as a livestock pen and an outdoor livestock enclosure owned by two members of the community.

They then proceeded westwards to Khirbet al-Mufaqarah, which is home to some 73 residents, where they demolished a tin-roofed cinderblock structure housing a family of three. From there they turned north to Khirbet a-Rakeez, home to 15 people, where they demolished another tin-roofed cinderblock structure housing a family of nine, including five children. Both residences had been donated by a humanitarian aid organization.

The demolitions were executed pursuant to Military Order 1797, which was issued in April of 2018 and removed the semblance of judicial review.

On Wednesday, 12 February 2020, at around 12:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with military jeeps and a crane truck to the community of Tal a-Smadi northwest of the village of al-Jiftlik, in the Jordan Valley. Sixteen families live in this community, 13 of them permanently and three on a seasonal basis. The forces dismantled and confiscated a shack that housed a family of three, including one child, and delivered a “warning order for cessation of antiquity destruction” to four other families.

On Monday, 17 February 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., personnel from Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, arrived with Civil Administration officials, military jeeps and two bulldozers to Khirbet ‘Alan which is located in the Jordan Valley, southwest of the village of al-Jiftlik, and is home to about 50 families. The forces disconnected pipes that supplied water for domestic and agricultural use in the community. Israel, which has controlled most water sources in the West Bank since it occupied it nearly fifty years ago, disregards the severe water shortage suffered by Palestinians and promotes projects that can alleviate it only when they involve improvements to settlement infrastructure. At the same time, Israel demolishes every water supply system that Palestinians try to erect themselves in Area C, subjecting them to intolerable living conditions in order to force them out of the area.

On Wednesday, 19 February 2020, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a Border Police escort, two bulldozers and a crane truck to a school in Khirbet Susiya in the South Hebron Hills. The forces confiscated a caravan usually used by the school’s fourth grade, which has five students. Forty-seven of the community’s children attend grades one to nine at the school. The school has been under renovation for the past two weeks, and the caravan was removed from the area temporarily by the residents and used for storage. Border police officers violently pushed and arrested a resident who protested the confiscation. He was released the next day, after depositing bail.


The forces then moved on to the community of Birin, located north-east of the town of Yatta, where they confiscated a caravan donated earlier that year by a charity to house two elderly sisters.

On Thursday, 2 January 2020, at around 9:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived at the Msafar Yatta area in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated a Palestinian Ministry of Health jeep serving as a mobile clinic. The jeep was on its way to Khirbet al-Majaz and it was confiscated on the grounds that it had entered a firing zone. The Civil Administration personnel held the jeep near the settlement of Susiya, ordered the physicians to get out and took the jeep to the Etzion military camp.

On Friday, 3 January 2020, at around 2:00 P.M., military forces arrived in jeeps at farmland located southwest of Khirbet al-Malih in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces confiscated four tractors owned by residents of Tubas, and another rented from the al-’Aqabah Agricultural Cooperative. The soldiers ordered the residents to drive the tractors to the Saura military camp, located west of Khirbet Samrah.

Two days earlier, on Wednesday, 1 January 2020, at around 2:00 P.M., military forces arrived in a jeep to farmlands south of the village of Furush Beit Dajan. The forces confiscated two tractors owned by a local resident and ordered him to drive one of them to the Huwarah military camp. The second tractor was driven there by one of the soldiers.

The military still has the confiscated tractors.

On Dec. 16, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with military jeeps and a bulldozer to the community of al-Ka'abneh, in the Wadi al-Qalt area of al-Quds District. The forces demolished a shack used a residence by a family of eight, including five children. The forces also demolished another shack belonging to the family and used as a livestock pen.