Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Tuesday, 28 October 2025, at around 12:00 P.M., a Civil Administration enforcement officer, escorted by five soldiers, arrived at the community of Um al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills and delivered 14 demolition orders, 13 of them for structures built on or next to the ruins of ones demolished by the Civil Administration in 2014 and 2016. The targeted structures include a house, four residential tents, two kitchen tents, two caravans, one residential and one used for storage and as a guesthouse during the summer, a sheep pen and an outhouse.

On Tuesday, 18 February 2025, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel, accompanied by soldiers and Border Police officers and equipped with two excavators, arrived at the community of Um al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished three homes, leaving three young men homeless. The forces then continued to the community of a-Rakeez in Masafer Yatta, where they demolished a trailer home, leaving a family of five, including three minors, homeless. After that, the forces proceeded to She’b al-Batem, also in Masafer Yatta, where they demolished a trailer home that was not yet inhabited and a livestock enclosure.

On Wednesday morning, 14 August 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort at the community of Khirbet Um al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. The force demolished two trailers and four tents that were home to 17 people, 11 of them minors, leaving the family homeless.

The trailers and tents were installed after Israel demolished the family's home on 26 June 2024.

On Wednesday morning, 26 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and three diggers to the community of Khirbet Umm al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished the homes of two families: a stone structure belonging to a family of seven, including five minors, and a residential complex consisting of two stone structures and five shacks belonging to a family of 17, including 11 minors. In 2009, the Civil Administration issued 11 stop-work orders for structures in the community, including the homes of these families.

The forces also demolished a guest hall (diwan) and a solar power room that supplied electricity to all the homes in the community.

One of the homes demolished belonged to ‘Eid Hadalin, an artist who has exhibited work alongside well-known Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.This demolition is meant to appease the settlers,” said Hadalin. “Demolishing our homes, and so demolishing our lives.”

The latest demolition is part of the Israeli apartheid regime's efforts to drive Palestinian communities out of the South Hebron Hills and other areas of the West Bank, and transfer their lands to Jewish hands

On Wednesday morning, 10 February 2021, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort to Khirbet a-Tawamin in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated an outhouse. They then continued to the western part of Khirbet Susiya, where they confiscated a tent that was home to a family of six, including four minors. The forces went on to Khirbet a-Rakeez, where they confiscated an outhouse and three tents, two of which were being used to host activists following the grave injury of community resident Harun Abu ‘Aram (24) at the hands of Israeli security forces on 1 January 2021. The erection of the third tent was underway. From there, the forces continued to the community of Um al-Kheir and confiscated two gas pumps. Finally, they reached the community of Khallet al-Furn, where they dismantled and confiscated a shack under construction.

Today, Thursday, 4 July 2019, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with soldiers, Border Police officers and four bulldozers at Khirbet a-Duqaiqah in the South Hebron Hills. The forces uprooted 500 forest trees planted in a nature reserve in 2014 for the benefit of local residents and destroyed four water cisterns used to irrigate them.

Yesterday, Wednesday, 3 July 2019, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with soldiers, Border Police officers, four bulldozers and an excavator at the nature reserve between the villages of Um al-Kheir and a-Najada (Humeida) in the South Hebron Hills. The forces uprooted some 300 acacia trees planted about 12 years ago and destroyed a fence that had been put up around the area.

​ ​On 12 June 2019, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived at Khirbet Um al-Kheir, in the South Hebron Hills, with a military and Border Police escort and two bulldozers. The forces demolished a caravan used as a home by a family of ten, including seven minors. From there, the forces proceeded east, to the community of Khashm a-Daraj, where they demolished a shack used as a livestock pen.

At about 10:00 A.M. this morning, Thursday 2 May 2019, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort to the Palestinian community of Khirbet Susiya in the South Hebron Hills. They brought two bulldozers with them. For the fourth time in just over two weeks, the troops dismantled and confiscated a tent that served as the seasonal home of a family of three. From Khirbet Susiya the troops then went to the community of Khirbet Um al-Kheir where they demolished a shed that served as a sheep pen. 

Yesterday, Wednesday,1 May 2019, in Khirbet Susiya, the very same family's tent was confiscated and dismantled for the third time by the Civil Administration personnel who came to the community with a military and Border Police escort. The troops also dismantled and confiscated a tent that served as a sheep pen for the family’s flock. A little later, at around 11:00 A.M., the CA personnel and their escort, taking along a digger and a bulldozer, continued north to the community of Khirbet a-Deirat. There, the troops demolished a structure built of concrete that served as the home of a family of seven, five of them children.

More demolitions this morning in the Jordan Valley and Ma’ale Adumim Area. Wave of demolitions, today, Apr. 7, in several West Bank communities including E1 and repeat demolitions in Khirbet Tana in the Jordan Valley. Earlier this week, the authorities demolished 6 dwellings in Um al-Kheir, South Hebron Hills, and 2 in Wadi al-Qalt. The recent action has left 43 people homeless, including 26 minors. It is part of a demolition campaign launched by Israel in early 2016, in which 128 dwellings and 138 other structures in vulnerable communities have already been destroyed, leaving 510 people, including 275 minors homeless.