Facing Expulsion

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 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 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.

On 3 February 2021, two days after the last demolitions, at around 8:00 A.M., four Civil Administration vehicles arrived with an escort of some 30 Border Police officers and soldiers, bulldozers, buggers, and crane trucks at the community of Khirbet Humsah al-Fouqa. The forces demolished seven residential tents that served nine families, numbering 61 people, including 33 minors, five tents and two shacks that served as livestock enclosures, and three livestock pens. The forces also confiscated four portable toilets, three dismantled tents, and demolished two portable toilets and two tents that served as Tabun ovens. In addition, they confiscated one vehicle owned by a Palestinian human rights activist and another by the Palestinian Authority's National Commission against the Wall and the Settlements. Towards the end of the incident, clashes ensued between residents and the Israeli forces, and a soldier was injured lightly by a stone. The soldiers and Border Police did not open fire.

At around 6:00 P.M., the forces returned to the community and confiscated nine tents, six of which were dismantled, and disassembled barbed wire fences. The forces also confiscated two vehicles belonging to the Palestinian Authority's National Commission against the Wall and the Settlements and detained several residents and activists for about two hours.

On Tuesday, 2 Feb. 2021, at around midday, four busloads of soldiers and dozens of heavy military vehicles, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, drove up to “Firing Zone 918” and parked along its boundaries. The next day, at around 1:00 A.M., the forces started shelling practice that lasted until the early morning hours. The explosions and sounds of gunfire caused great fear among area communities, and especially the neighboring community of Khashm a-Daraj.

At around 6:00 A.M., the forces entered the community of Khirbet Jenbah in Masafer Yatta, drove among homes and near the community school and trampled fields of wheat and barley. They damaged a cave that one of the families used for storage, as well as a power cable leading from the village’s solar panel system to the mosque and the medical clinic, a water pipe serving one of the families, and the pathway connecting the community to Khirbet Bir al-‘Eid. From there, the forces continued north, trampling the fields of residents of Khirbet Bir al-‘Eid and Khirbet Susiya. They left the area at around 2:30 P.M.

On Monday, 1 February 2021, Israeli forces confiscated most of the residential structures and livestock pens in the community of Khirbet Humsah. The community was already demolished on 3 November 2020, while the world was focused on the US elections. Yesterday, the Civil Administration dismantled and confiscated the following equipment: Thirteen tents that were home to 11 families, numbering 74 members, including 41 minors; two of the families had relocated temporarily to the Furush Beit Dajan area after their homes were demolished in November 2020. Five shacks, one not yet built, and eight tents, all used for livestock.

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On Thursday morning, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military jeep escort, a bulldozer and two crane trucks to the community of Wadi al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated three tents that were home to two families of 13 in total, including five children. They also dismantled and confiscated 12 feeding and watering troughs, shade sails and five tents used as livestock enclosures, and demolished the fences of livestock pens. Some of the tents were donated to the two families by humanitarian aid organizations after the Civil Administration demolished their residential and livestock tents on 2 July 2020.

On Wednesday morning, 27 January 2021, at around 6:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and a digger to the community of Um Qusa, which lies east of a-Zuweidin in the South Hebron Hills, and destroyed a mosque under construction that was meant to serve this community and two others in the area, al-‘Ibdiya and al-Jeras. The forces then headed south to Khirbet a-Rakeez, where they confiscated a pre-fab used by a family as an outhouse. They then went to the Farsh al-Hawa area in the city of Hebron and confiscated a pre-fab used by a resident for agricultural purposes.

On Wednesday, 27 January 2021, at around 8:30 A.M., about 20 Civil Administration and Border Police jeeps arrived with four busloads of soldiers and three diggers at Khirbet ‘Einun in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces blocked the four entrances into the community and either cut down or uprooted more than 3,000 forest trees planted by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture in 2016. The forces also cut down and uprooted about 130 olive and almond trees on land belonging to one of the residents, and threw a stun grenade at residents who were protesting their actions.