Facing Expulsion

On 23 April 2020, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a police escort at the community of Khallet al-Fouleh, west of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, and delivered orders to desist from “antiquity destruction” for tents and shacks, some of which house seven families and others serve as livestock pens. The community is home to some 40 families with a total of 270 members. A member of one of the families was arrested by the forces and released two days later, after paying a 4,000 NIS fine (1,140 USD). Three days earlier, on April 20, Civil Administration personnel arrived at the village of Kardalah and delivered a stop-work order for a mosque under construction.

On Thursday, 23 April 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a crane truck and a military-jeep escort to a Palestinian community on the outskirts of the village of 'Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta, west of Jericho. The forces dismantled and confiscated a caravan that housed a family of eight, including five children, and a shack used as a livestock pen. The two structures were donated to the family by a humanitarian aid organization after the military destroyed its former residence and livestock pen in December 2019. The forces also delivered a demolition order for a house currently under construction owned by a family from Jerusalem.

This morning, 1 April 2020, around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with an escort of military jeeps, a truck with a crane and a bulldozer to Khirbet ‘Alan, which lies southwest of the village of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan valley. The forces closed off the area for about two hours, while they dismantled and confiscated a prefab built about two months earlier as an extension for a welder’s shop owned by a resident of al-Jiftlik.

Around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with two military jeeps and two bulldozers to the village of Rummanah in Jenin District and demolished three homes under construction, designed to house three families of 10 people altogether, including four children. The demolitions were carried out by the power of Military Order 1797, issued on April 2018, which eliminated any semblance of judicial review.

This morning, Thursday, 26 March 2020, at around 7:30 am, officials from Israel’s Civil Administration in the West Bank arrived with a military jeep escort, a bulldozer and two flatbed trucks with cranes at the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. They confiscated poles and sheeting that were meant to form eight tents, two for a field clinic, and four for emergency housing for residents evacuated from their homes, and two as makeshift mosques. The force also confiscated a tin shack in place for more than two years, as well as a power generator and sacks of sand and cement. Four pallets of cinder blocks intended for the tent floors were taken away and four others demolished.


In addition to the shocking destruction of the clinic under construction, the Civil Administration is continuing its demolition routine. Today, it demolished three seasonal homes of farmers who are residents of Jerusalem, in the village of ‘Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta west of Jericho.

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, 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 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.