Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Tuesday, 23 March 2022, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort, a bulldozer and a crane truck to the main trance to the village of Khirbet Qalqas in the South Hebron Hills. The forces confiscated a prefab that served as a gas station and a broken-down minibus used for storage. From there, the forces continued about a kilometer towards Hebron, where they demolished agricultural terraces and uprooted about 60 olive trees in a four-dunam grove belonging to a Hebron resident.

On Sunday, 20 March 2022, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and equipped with a bulldozer to the community of East Taybah (Badu al-Mu’arrajat) and demolished four out of six of the community’s wooden and tin residential structures. The demolished structures housed four families from the same extended family, numbering 21 people in total, including eight minor.

On 15 March 2022, while Mufdi Sawaftah was spraying fields for landowners on a tractor near the community of al-Burj, northeast of Hamamat al-Malih, Jordan Valley Settlement regional council employees arrived and summoned soldiers to the scene. The soldiers confiscated the tractor on the pretext that it had entered a firing zone and led it to a military camp west of Khirbet Samrah. The soldiers detained Sawaftah for about half an hour, claiming he had stayed in a firing zone although it was cultivated farmland and he was employed by its owners.

On Monday, 14 March 2022, at around 10:00, Jordan Valley Settlement regional council employees came with a military and Israel Police escort to four vegetable stalls that stood on Route 90 and confiscated their goods. Seven families make a living from operating the stalls, located between the villages of Bardalah and ‘Ein al-Beida. The stalls were rebuilt after the settlement council employees dismantled them and confiscated their goods on 8 March 2022.

On Sunday morning, 6 March 2022, the military again conducted infantry training in various parts of the Jordan Valley: south of Khirbet Um al-Jamal, in the a-Shakh area near the village of al-Farisiyah and next to Um al-Qiba near Hamamat al-Malih. During the training the soldiers trampled cultivated fields and fired live ammunition. The shepherds were forced to leave the herds in the pen and not go out to pasture.

On Tuesday, 8 March 2022, soldiers trained east of the community of Khirbet Makhul and expelled shepherds from the area on the pretext that it was a closed military zone.

On Thursday, 3 March 2022, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and four crane trucks to the village of Cardalah in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated an agricultural structure and shed owned by a village resident and tin plates intended for the construction of a chicken coop owned by another resident.

On Monday, 28 February 2022, at around 9:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and equipped with bulldozers to the Fasayil al-Foqa area in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished an uncovered cement structure under construction intended to house an area resident. The demolition was carried out by order of Military Order 1797, delivered on 23 February 2022. An additional order was delivered for a storage unit built by another family in the area.

On Wednesday, 23 February 2022, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and bulldozers to the community of She’b al-Batum in Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished the homes of two families, numbering 23 people, including 17 minors, as well as a shed belonging to another family.

From there, the forces continued to the Abu Qabita area in the community of Khirbet Lasefar, which was sealed off by the Separation Barrier, where they demolished two uninhabited seasonal homes and two livestock enclosures.

On 22 February 2022, troops came to the community of Khirbet al-Malih again and conducted training, including live fire and tank maneuvers. The training prevented area shepherds from taking their flocks out to nearby pastures.
That day, additional troops trained near the community of al-Farisiyah, put up tents in farmland and damaged crops. The soldiers fired live ammunition, and tanks performed maneuvers.
On Thursday, 24 February 2022, at around 9:30 A.M., military forces came to the community of Khirbet Um al-Jamal, passed by the community homes and conducted infantry training in farmland about two kilometers west of it.

As part of the military training that began in the Jordan Valley on 25 January 2022, troops trained between 13 and 15 February 2022 west of the Hamamat al-Malih area, about five kilometers from the al-Burj community. During the training, the troops fired live ammunition, and area residents could not take their flocks out to pasture. The troops also destroyed recently sown farmland belonging to residents of Tubas and Tayasir. On the morning of 16 February 2022, dozens of soldiers conducted infantry training near the residential tents of the Khirbet ‘Ein al-Hilweh community. That afternoon, troops conducted infantry training again, including live fire and tank maneuvers in the Hamamat al-Malih area.