Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Wednesday, 3 April 2024, at around 1:00 P.M., Jordan Valley settlement council staff arrived at Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley with a soldier. They seized a car belonging to a farmer who was working his land on a tractor and ordered him to drive it to the military base north of Khirbet Samrah, on the pretext that it had entered “Firing Zone 900.”
 

On Monday, 27 June 2022, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley.

The force demolished two residential tents, a kitchen tent and a tabun (traditional oven) belonging to two families numbering 15 people in total, including 11 eleven minors. The families live in the community nine months a year and leave for the summer. The force also demolished two tents that served as livestock pens, a tent used as a chicken coop, a tent used for storage and five tents used as tabuns, owned by four other families from the community that also leave for the summer.

In addition, the force demolished a rainwater cistern, a trailer, a water container and a hospitality tent the head of the council put up for community members to use, as well as uprooting trees.

As part of the military training that took place in the western Jordan Valley beginning on 25 January 2022, in which troops destroyed dozens of dunams of crops, three cows belonging to a resident of Khirbet Tall al-Himma, were hit by shell fire on 7 February 2022 in Khirbet Jabaris, west of al-Farisiyah, and one died. That day, the Civil Administration issued eviction orders to seven families from the community of Khirbet Ibzik, numbering 45 people, including 23 minors, for three consecutive days (8, 9 and 10 February 2022). On each day, the families were forced to vacate their homes from 8:00 A.M. until 1:00 A.M. the following day.

On Tuesday, 8 February 2022, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to the community and ordered the residents to leave their homes. The next day, the troops came to the area again, at around 9:30 A.M., and ordered the families to evacuate. On the morning of 10 February 2022, the families vacated their homes before the troops arrived. Each time, the families walked six to eight kilometers after the military forbade Palestinian vehicle traffic in the area and stayed at relatives' homes.

During the evacuation days, infantry and tanks trained in the al-Qa’un area north of Bardalah and fired shells. In addition, the troops destroyed dozens of wheat, onion, corn, beans and chickpea fields, as well as irrigation pipes and agricultural dirt roads.

On the morning of Sunday, 13 February 2022, military forces came to the area west of Hamamat al-Malih, about five kilometers away from the community of al-Burj. The soldiers put up tents there and dozens of them trained in the residents’ fields west of al-Burj and fired live ammunition. In addition, tanks trained in pastureland in the area, forcing the shepherds to keep the flocks in livestock pens.

Between 25 and 27 January 2022, the Israeli military conducted extensive training in Palestinian farmland in the Jordan Valley. During the training, tanks damaged about 30 dunams of wheat fields in the Khallet Ajmi’ah area, south of the village of al-‘Aqabah. The forces continued training until 27 January 2022.

On Tuesday, 1 February 2022, the troops resumed training, this time near the communities of Khirbet al-Malih, al-Burj and Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa. The troops put up tents and trailers in the area and stayed there until the next day, Wednesday, 22 February 2022. The training included infantry and vehicle training, including four bulldozers.

On Monday, 7 February 2022, dozens of soldiers in military vehicles and tanks arrived at the land of the villages of Um al-Jamal and al-Farisiyah, spread out in cultivated farmland and roamed among the residents’ homes.

That day, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to Khirbet Ibzik and delivered orders to seven of the community’s families, numbering 45, including 23 minors, instructing them to vacate from their homes starting tomorrow, Tuesday, 8 February 2022. On each of the days, the families are required to evacuate from 8:00 A.M. until 1:00 A.M. the following day.

In so-called training, the military destroyed hundreds of dunams of crops, tilled fields and farming roads in the area of Khirbet Ibziq. Soldiers fired shells hundreds of meters from community homes, and the Civil Administration again demolished the tents of three families. The official insistence on training in the area, and that in any case it is a “closed firing zone” barred to Palestinians, relies on empty arguments masking the Israeli apartheid regime’s long-term goals: driving the residents out to further control and use area resources. Read more

In the past month, the military has evacuated families from Khirbet Ibzik five times on the pretext that it needs to hold training right by the community’s homes. The last evacuation took place on 27 December 2021, at 8:00 A.M. The military did not allow the families to return to their homes until 2:00 A.M. On the day of the evacuation and the following day, the military conducted training, including with tanks, near the community’s homes and cultivated fields, damaging barley crops. Tanks fired shells 350 meters away from the residents’ homes. At around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel also came to the community. They dismantled and confiscated three residential tents belonging to three families numbering 16 people in total, including six minors. They also confiscated and dismantled eight tents used as livestock enclosures, two tents used for storing fodder, two water tanks and two solar panels. 

On Sunday, 5 December 2021, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort to the community of Khirbet Ibzik in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces delivered six families, numbering 35 people, including 17 minors, orders forcing them to vacate their homes and stay at least five kilometers away from them for four days (between 5 December and 15 December), every day for 18 hours from 8:00 A.M. until the next day at 2:00 A.M., so the military could train inside the community’s territory. In addition, on the first day of training, the forces confiscated the tractor of a resident of ‘Aqaba, which was used that day to perform agricultural work in the area.

On each of the days when the residents were required to evacuate, two jeeps of the Civil Administration arrived at their homes in the morning to make sure that they had left their homes. During the training, tanks were stationed in the hills east of Ibzik and Khirbet Qa’un, north of Bardalah. Some of the tanks trampled cultivated fields, destroyed crops and damaged agricultural roads and water pipes belonging to area farmers.

On Wednesday, 15 December 2021, Civil Administration personnel came to the community again accompanied by soldiers and delivered six families an order instructing them to vacate their homes again on 27 December 2021, from 8:00 A.M. until the next day at 2:00 A.M., so the military could train inside the community’s territory.

Two members of the families ordered to evacuate gave testimonies to B'Tselem field researcher 'Aref Daraghmeh:

Muhammad Nasrallah (50), a father of six: On 30 November 2021, Civil Administration personnel and the military came and handed us and five other families eviction orders so the military could train in the area. The orders indicated four days when we were supposed to evacuate from morning till noon. On the first morning we were due to evacuate, 5 December 2021, Civil Administration personnel and the military came again and handed us new orders stipulating that the evacuations wouldn't be until the afternoon but until 2:00 A.M. We were in the middle of our morning routine: making breakfast, tending to the flock, preparing the kids for school, but Civil Administration and the military wouldn't leave us alone until we left our homes and then they led us about six kilometers away. They did this on each of the evacuation days. We had to move to the tents of relatives, but it was uncomfortable, and we couldn't sleep on those nights. And when we come back, in the middle of the night, in the cold and darkness, we usually found that the flock went into the tents and made a mess. It was impossible to do anything in the dark, so we just went to sleep. After a few days, we were taken out of our houses again.

Hayel Turkman (41), a father of 10: We stayed in a house belonging to my brother each time. It's not our home, and we didn't feel comfortable there. At night, we heard bombings and gunfire. We stayed awake until 2:00 A.M. and then went home, on foot, of course. We were terrified of encountering wild animals in the dark or stepping on remnants of military ammunition. We were exhausted from lack of sleep. It took us half an hour to get back to our tents. When we arrived, the women and children went to sleep, and I checked on the flock, which was already starving, and gave it food. The next day, we checked the tents and the kitchen, and on some days, we found a big mess there because some of the flock went into the tents and turned things over. Each time, I went around the tents to check if any ammunition was left behind. Luckily, I didn't find anything. Each year, we evacuate our tents for this training. Our lives have become very difficult in this place, and we don't feel safe here, but we have no other place else to live in.

On Tuesday, 31 August 2021, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and a bulldozer to the community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished two residential tents, an outhouse and a clay oven (tabun) belonging to a family that lives in the community in winter. They also demolished two tents used as livestock pens and an agricultural shack. Before leaving, the forces handed demolition orders to two other families in the community.

On Sunday, 15 August 2021, the Israeli military began training in various parts of the Jordan Valley. The forces, which included tanks, spread out in the communities of Khirbet Samrah, al Farisiyah, al-Burj, Khirbet al-Malih and other places in the area, and prevented shepherds from grazing their herds. The maneuvers, which included shelling, ended on the afternoon of Thursday, 19 August 2021. During the training that day, several shells hit the Khirbet Jabaris area southeast of Khirbet Ibzik, destroying a tent used as a rest stop for shepherds.

On Monday, 16 August 2021, Civil Administration personnel came to the community of Khirbet Ibzik and informed one of the families that they had to vacate their home on 22, 25 and 31 August, for two days at a time, due to military training planned in their area of residence. In addition, two families from the community received stop-work orders for two tents they owned.

The military’s training routine in the Jordan Valley is part of Israel’s long-standing policy that endangers the lives of residents and harms their livelihood. The policy aims to make the lives of Palestinian communities unbearable and force them out, ostensibly of their own free will.

This morning, Wednesday, 4 Aug. 2021, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort, laborers, a bulldozer and a crane truck to the community of Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated structures owned by 3 families numbering 25 people in total, 17 of them minors: 4 residential tents, 7 tents used as livestock enclosures and 3 livestock pens. The forces also demolished two generators, two solar panels, parts of a third solar panel and two cars belonging to community residents.

The families were left homeless under the blazing sun in the height of a heat wave.

Since 2 November 2020, Israeli troops have been training in the Jordan Valley with small arms and tank fire. The exercises, held near Palestinian communities or on their pastureland from Sunday through Thursday, endanger the residents’ lives and damage their livelihoods.

Most of the exercises have been held in the northern Jordan Valley, especially near the communities of al-Farisiyah, Khirbet al-Malih, al-Burj, Khirbet Samrah and Khirbet Ibzik. While the troops were training, some residents left their homes for fear for their lives and did not take their flocks out to graze. In the area of Khirbet al-Malih, the troops trained only 100 meters or so away from the residents’ homes. In other places, they trained about 3 kilometers from community homes. As part of the exercises, soldiers fired tank shells at hilly terrain and pastureland.

On Tuesday, 4 November 2020, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military jeep escort at the communities of al-Burj, ‘Ein al-Meyteh and Nab’ al-Ghazal in the Jordan Valley. They notified the residents that the following week, starting Tuesday, they would have to evacuate the premises every day at set hours so troops could train within their communities’ territory. The training was eventually held without evacuating the residents, who left of their own accord for fear for their lives and did not take their flocks out to graze.

Last week, from 15 to 19 November, hundreds of soldiers trained in the pastureland of Khirbet al-Malih, about 100 meters away from residents’ homes. The soldiers fired tank shells and forbade the residents from grazing their flocks in the area.

On the morning of 24 November 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., two Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at the communities of ‘Ein al-Meyteh and al-Burj. They ordered ten families, numbering 60 people in total, mostly minors, to vacate their homes and stay at a distance of about 100 meters south of the communities' residential area until 4:00 P.M.

On Tuesday night, 3 November 2020, at around 10:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel came with dozens of soldiers to the Palestinian community of Khirbet Ibzik in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces blocked the entrances to the community and spread out among the homes. They stayed in the area until 9:00 A.M. and confiscated nine tractors, five water containers, five utility trailers, and two cars of residents.