Facing Expulsion

Yesterday, Wednesday, 27 March 2019, at around 3:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a bulldozer and a military-jeep escort to the Palestinian community of Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. They handed over a stop-work order for a rainwater cistern that a Tubas resident had recently begun to dig on farmland he owns in the area. According to the order, the work could not be allowed to continue due to deep drilling. The force also confiscated a truck fitted with a digger that was being used to dig the cistern, belonging to a resident Deir Abu Da’if, a village in the Jenin area.

At around 9:00 A.M. yesterday, 20 March 2019, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and two bulldozers to the Palestinian community of Khirbet a-Tuba in the area of Masafer Yatta, which lies in the South Hebron Hills. The force demolished a tin-roofed concrete house that was home to a family of six, one of them a child. It also confiscated a water tank, three solar panels and related equipment from the same family. The force then continued south to the Palestinian community of Maghayir al-'Abid, where it demolished a livestock pen at around 11:00 A.M., and further south to Khirbet al-Halawah, demolishing a house built of blocks and wooden panels that was home to a family of three, including a child, and also a mosque made of mud and stones.

This morning, Tuesday, 13 March 2019, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration officials came with a military jeep escort to Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. The force served the community with stop-work orders for tents and shacks that are home to five families - numbering 19 people, 10 of them children - and for about 20 livestock pens. They also confiscated a tractor from a Tubas farmer who cultivates land within the confines of the community, on the grounds that he had entered a closed military zone.

This morning (Monday, 11 March 2019), at around 9:00 A.M, Israeli soldiers came to the South Hebron Hills, bringing a bulldozer. They piled up boulders, sandpiles and concrete blocks to block access from Route 317 onto two roads that lead to the community of She’b al-Batem. Earlier this year, in January and February, the Civil Administration had already dug deep trenches to block these roads from the east. Also this morning, the troops similarly blocked side roads leading to the nearby communities of Khallet al-Mayah, Khirbet Wadi Ejheish and al-Kharabah.

Today, Thursday, 7 March 2019, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a tractor, accompanied by a military jeep escort and Border Police officers, to Khirbet al-Fakhit in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills. The officials confiscated a tent that was home to a family of eight, four of them children, part of the year. They then went east to Khirbet al-Maghaz, where they confiscated another tent that was also the seasonal home of a family of five, two of them children. After that, the force continued east to Khirbet a-Duqeiqah, where they confiscated three tents that were seasonal homes to an extended family of sixteen, four of them children, and a tent that served as a livestock pen.

Today, Tuesday, 19 February 2019, Civil Administration officials came with soldiers to Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. The force demolished two residential tents. One was home to a family of four and the other to one person. The force also demolished six tents that were used as a livestock pen, as well as a livestock paddock.

Today, Wednesday, 13 February 2019, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military-jeep and Border Police escort to a site near the village of a-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. The forces, which also had two crane trucks and a digger, unearthed a five kilometer stretch of pipe which was laid about two months ago to supply water to twelve communities in the area with a total population of more than 1,000. The residents previously relied on water supplied by tankers. The Israeli forces cut the pipe and confiscated it. 

Israel laid water infrastructure, using the water company Mekorot, throughout the South Hebron Hills, to supply water to settlements and outposts and their agricultural projects such as dairy farms, greenhouses and vineyards. This infrastructure runs near the Palestinian villages, but, with the exception of Khirbet a-Tuwani, the Civil Administration never connected the villages to this infrastructure.

Other villages in the area have had to store rain water in cisterns or buy tanker-delivered water. The Civil Administration has issued demolition orders for many of the water cisterns, claiming they had been built without permits, even though some of them date back to the British mandate. About two months ago, residents of a-Tuwani allowed neighboring communities to connect to their water pipe, and today, Israel confiscated the pipe and cut off the water supply. 

Withholding the water supply is yet another step in a series of abusive measures the authorities have been taking against local residents, in a bid to expel them from the area and their homes.

On 31 January 2019, the Israeli Civil Administration dug up the road linking the community of She’b al-Batem with the rest of the communities in Masafer Yatta (Greater Yatta) in the South Hebron Hills. Two days later, the local residents repaired the road. Yesterday (Monday, 11 February 2019), at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel returned with a Border Police and military escort. They brought a bulldozer and a tractor and re-dug a deep trench across the road.

Yesterday, Wednesday, 6 February 2019, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military-jeep escort to the Palestinian communities of: Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar, al-Burj, Khirbet al-Malih and 'Ein al-Meyteh in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces instructed more than 50 families numbering a total of 291 people, including 154 children, to leave their homes by 5:00 PM. The instructions came after on Sunday, 3 February 2019, at around 10:00 AM, the families were handed orders for temporary evacuation on two dates: yesterday, 6 February 2019 and 13 February 2019 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Yesterday, in Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar, the forces ordered three families to leave two hours before the time stated in the order. The three families, and the remaining families in the community who left at 10:00 AM had to walk for six kilometers to Khirbet ‘Atuf. In the other three communities, residents used tractors and tractor trailers, some going to Kafr ‘Aqabah and some to Khirbet ‘Ein al-Hilwa. After the families left, the military set up roadblocks at the entrance to Kafr ‘Aqabah and near Khirbet al-Malih, preventing travel between Jordan Valley communities and the city of Tubas for several hours. The military held training exercises with infantry units and dozens of tanks that fired shells.