Facing Expulsion

On Thursday, 14 May 2020, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military-jeep escort, a digger and a crane truck to the Palestinian community of Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the Jordan Valley and confiscated water pipes. The forces also destroyed two tents, one of which had been used as a rest stop for a shepherd who lives outside the community and the other as a livestock pen for a local resident. The forces also destroyed two livestock enclosures.


On the previous day, Wednesday, 13 May 2020, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a digger and a military-jeep escort to the Palestinian village of Fasayil a-Tahta in the Jordan Valley. The forces destroyed concrete and metal posts installed as a foundation for a structure where a family of five, including three children, was going to live. The forces also destroyed a tent and a shack used as livestock pens by two local residents.

This morning, Tuesday 30 July 2019, at around 6:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived at Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley with a military escort, a bulldozer, and a truck with a crane. The forces dismantled and confiscated for the second time three tents that were used as a home for a family of nine, including four children. One of the tents was donated by the Red Cross after another tent was demolished. The forces also confiscated a solar panel belonging to the same family. The forces dismantled and confiscated three tents used by another resident as livestock pens; these tents were also donated by a humanitarian organization after the previous demolition. Two feeding troughs were also confiscated.
Later, at around 1:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel accompanied by a bulldozer arrived at Khirbet Wadi al-Faw, to the south of Khirbet ‘Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished a tent used for seasonal residency by a family of eight, including three children, as well as a livestock pen owned by the family.

In a separate incident yesterday, Monday 29 July 2019, at around 1:00 P.M. soldiers accompanied by police officers and officials from the Mekorot water company, equipped with a tow-truck, arrived in the village of Bardala in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces confiscated a truck fitted with excavation equipment after several residents of the village attempted to dig a water cistern on their farmland.

This morning, 12 June 2019, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived at Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley with a military escort and two bulldozers. The forces demolished six tents used as residences by two families with a total of 15 members, including 7 minors. The forces also demolished six tents used as livestock pens as well as a tin livestock pen. The forces then proceeded north, to an area that stretches between the Palestinian villages of al-'Aqabah and Tayasir, where they demolished a water cistern a farmer from Tayasir dug about three months ago for irrigation.

On the morning of 30 May 2019, at about 8:00 A.M., Israeli Civil Administration personnel came with a tractor and bulldozer to Khirbet a-Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley. They had a military jeep as escort. The troops demolished two tents that served as seasonal dwellings and a sheep pen. One of the residential tents had been donated by the Red Cross and the other had been purchased with aid money from international humanitarian organizations. The troops also slashed and ruined ten canopy tents, some of which had been purchased with international aid funds. Later that morning, at about 10:00 A.M., CA personnel with a military jeep escort arrived at the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley. There, too, the troops demolished two tents that were seasonal homes and two tents that served as sheep pens.

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.

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.

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.

On 14 October 2017, military forces arrived at two Palestinian communities in the Jordan valley to confiscate vehicles and work tools. At around 3:30 AM, a force arrived at a farm in Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar, where it confiscated a digger and a truck and told the people who work at the farm to drive the vehicles to the al-Hamra checkpoint. At around 2:00 PM, a military force arrived at the community of Khirbet a-Deir, and ordered the owner of a private car from the community and three people in possession of trucks rented with funding from a humanitarian organization to build an access road to farmlands, to drive their vehicles to the Beit Shean Bardalaי checkpoint. The drivers were held up at the checkpoint for several hours, and ultimately, two of the trucks were confiscated with no order. The reason given was construction without a permit.