Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Sunday, 20 August 2023, in the early afternoon, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at the village of Kh. a-Duqaiqah in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated a cement mixer owned by a construction company that was used for road repair work in the area. Civil Administration personnel ordered the driver to drive the truck to the main road, where they loaded it onto a tow truck and drove it away.

On Sunday, 20 August 2023, at around noon, soldiers came to a home in the community of Kh. al-Halawah in Masafer Yatta and confiscated the family’s car, claiming the owners drive workers who have no permits to Israel. A soldier drove the car to a military base near the community of Kh. Jenbah. 

On Tuesday, 22 August 2023, around 8:00 P.M., soldiers detained a resident of the community of Kh. Jenbah, who was driving in his car near the community, claiming he was driving in a “closed military zone” and confiscated the car. A soldier drove the car to a military base near the community. 

On Thursday, 24 August 2023, at around 4:00 A.M., soldiers detained a resident of the community of Kh. al-Fakhit, who was on his way home, claiming he was driving in a “closed military zone” and confiscated the car. The soldiers instructed the man to drive the car to a base near the community of Kh. Jenbah, which he did. 

This morning, 17 August 2023, about three months after residents of  'Ein Samia were forced to abandon their homes and lives in the community which lies northeast of Ramallah, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort, proclaimed the site a closed military zone and demolished the school community residents built in early 2022. The forces confiscated all the equipment inside the school as well. 

On 22 May 2023, the last remaining residents of the community, which numbered 200, were forced to leave their homes after Israel had made their lives unbearable, in part through settler violence. 

According to UN figures, the 'Ein Samia community school was one of 44 schools in the West Bank under threat of demolition, eight of them in East Jerusalem. About 4,800 students attend these schools.  

On Thursday, 17 August 2023, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort, a bulldozer and a truck at the community of Kh. Humsah a-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated a prefabricated structure donated by the ACTED organization to a family of seven, including five minors, after the Civil Administration demolished its seasonal home in the same area on 24 July 2023. In addition, the Civil Administration confiscated an outhouse owned by the same family. 

On Wednesday, 9 August 2023, in the afternoon, soldiers arrived in a military jeep at the village of Kh. a-Deirat in the South Hebron Hills while employees of an electric works company owned by residents of Khallet al-Mayah we making repairs to electric grids using a crane truck. The soldiers ordered them to stop their work, claiming they needed a permit, and called a representative of the Civil Administration. The representative arrived three hours later, confiscated the crane truck and ordered the driver to drive it to the settlement of Pnei Hever.

In the late afternoon on Wednesday, 9 August 2023, settlers arrived in a Jordan Valley regional settlement council vehicle at the pastureland east of the village of al-Hadidiyah in the northern Jordan Valley, where two of the village’s residents were grazing their flocks. The settlers summoned soldiers who confiscated the two cars owned by the shepherds on the pretext that they had driven into forbidden territory. The soldiers drove them to a nearby military post.

On Monday, 7 August 2023, in the late afternoon, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at Kh. Jenbah in Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, and confiscated a generator residents were using to renovate a cave they live in. The Civil Administration personnel took the generator to the settler outpost of Havat Talia, established near the community.

After repeated attacks and threats by settlers and having been left with no other choice, the Bedouin community of al-Qabun, located east of Ramallah, abandoned its homes this week. Most members of the community, numbering 12 families numbering a total of 86 people, including 26 minors, have left already, and the rest are currently packing up and getting ready to follow suit. The community has lived at the current site since 1996. In February of this year, settlers took up residence near it. Al-Qabun residents say that recently, settlers have been coming into the community, walking around their homes, arriving on horseback and in tractors late at night to provoke and intimidate the families. The settlers have also taken over the community’s farm fields and prevented them from grazing their flock on their land. Read more...

On Tuesday, 15 August 2023, at around 8:00 A.M., soldiers arrived in a military jeep and D9 bulldozer at the community of Ras al-Ahmar in the northern Jordan Valley and dug a 500-meter trench east of the community. The soldiers destroyed dozens of dunams (a dunam equals 1000 square meters) of farmland owned by the residents of the villages of Tubas and Tammun, as well as dirt roads that enabled travel between the communities in the area and farmland. 

On Monday, 31 July 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer and a digger, at the community of Khirbet Wadi Ejheish, South Hebron Hills, removed the contents of a dwelling made of steel sheets, took it apart and confiscated it.

On Monday, 31 July 2023, in the afternoon, soldiers arrived at the village of Kh. Emneizal in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated a tractor used by a local resident to dig up land to lay water infrastructure on the northern side of the village. The soldiers ordered the driver to drive the tractor to a military base that was established some 300 meters east of the village.