Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Wednesday, 23 September 2023, Israeli Civil Administration personnel arrived with military and police forces and heavy machinery at the Palestinian community of Khirbet Jenbah in the South Hebron Hills, which is home to about 300 people, and demolished dozens of structures. In total, the forces demolished 24 residential structures, 16 agricultural structures, 16 solar panels and 14 water tanks, and arrested one resident. The demolitions left 176 people, including about 85 children, homeless.

Today’s demolition in Khirbet Jenbah is Israel’s third broad demolition in Palestinian communities in the Masafer Yatta area in the last three weeks. On 2 September, Israeli forces demolished almost all of Khirbet a‑Taban, leaving 12 families numbering about 70 people, including 28 children, homeless. On 8 September, Israel demolished all five homes in the northern compound of Khirbet al‑Fakhit, which belonged to four families numbering 32 people, including 11 children. The forces also demolished sheep pens, water cisterns and tanks, solar installations and agricultural structures. That same day, forces also demolished a home in Khirbet Khallet a‑Dabe’, leaving another family homeless.

Yuli Novak, B’Tselem Executive Director: “We are seeing the Elimination Project in action right now. In the last three weeks, Israel has demolished homes and infrastructure in one Palestinian community after another in Masafer Yatta, dismantling the basic conditions for Palestinians to continue living on their land. This is ethnic cleansing in broad daylight. The international community knows exactly what is happening, yet continues to allow it.”

Khirbet Jenbah, Khirbet a‑Taban and Khirbet al‑Fakhit are three of 12 Palestinian communities, home to about 1,200 people in total, that lie in a section of the southern West Bank Israel declared “Firing Zone 918.” Designating the area as a firing zone, while deploying a planning system that prevents almost all Palestinian construction, serves Israel to advance demolitions and expel these communities from their land. Meanwhile, there are 10 outposts within the area designated as a “firing zone.”

The demolitions in Masafer Yatta are part of the Elimination Project that Israel is carrying out across the West Bank. Since October 2023, Israel has expelled 65 Palestinian communities from their land in the West Bank and partially displaced another 18. The demolitions and the expulsion of communities are part of a mechanism of ethnic cleansing and territorial takeover that Israel is using to dismantle the conditions that enable Palestinians to continue living on their land, while clearing the way for expanding Jewish-Israeli presence and control.

For B’Tselem’s report, The Elimination Project

On Tuesday morning, 8 September 2026, Civil Administration personnel, accompanied by soldiers and equipped with four diggers, arrived at the community of Khirbet al-Fakhit in Masafer Yatta. The forces demolished five residential structures belonging to four families numbering 32 people, including 11 minors, leaving them homeless. The forces also demolished nine sheep pens, two livestock enclosures, five external toilets, 18 water tanks, solar panels, two water cisterns and five chicken coops, and confiscated a car.

The forces then continued north to the community of Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe’, where they demolished the home of a family of seven, including four minors, leaving them homeless. The forces also demolished an outdoor kitchen structure.

On Wednesday, 2 September 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived at the community of Khirbet a-Taban, in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, with a military and Border Police escort and diggers. They demolished all 12 homes in the community and almost all its other structures, leaving the residents homeless. The residents were given no warning prior to the demolition and were not allowed to remove their property.

The community was home to 12 families, numbering 70 people, including 28 children. The residents made their living from farming and raising some 600 head of livestock.

The homes that were demolished were cinder-block structures roofed with sheet metal. The forces also demolished 12 outhouses, four water cisterns, 10 livestock pens, seven tarpaulin and sheet-metal structures used to store fodder, three facilities for growing azolla, 15 water tanks, a towed water tanker and two sheep-milking stations. The forces also destroyed the entrances to four caves and blocked the entrances to four others, all of which were used for storage.

Only one sheet-metal structure, used as a metalworking shop, remains in the community. A stop-work order for the structure was issued today, 2 September 2026.

About two months ago, the Civil Administration rejected a master plan submitted for the community, on the grounds that the military commander had not approved planning for the area.

Since October 2023, Israel has already expelled 65 Palestinian communities, in addition to 18 communities that have been partially expelled. 

Background

In the early 1980s, the Israeli military declared an area of about 30,000 dunams [3,000 hectares] in the South Hebron Hills, which includes the community’s land, a restricted military zone, and dubbed it “Firing Zone 918.”

In October and November 1999, the military expelled all 700 or so residents of 12 villages in the area on the official grounds that they were “illegally living in a firing zone”. This flimsy argument blatantly ignored the fact that the families had been living in the area for many years, since before Israel occupied the West Bank and afterwards, with the full knowledge of Israeli authorities.

Following the expulsion, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Attorney Shlomo Lecker filed petitions to the High Court of Justice (HCJ) on behalf of some 200 families from the villages. In March 2000, the HCJ issued an interim injunction permitting the villagers to return to their homes and graze their livestock in their fields pending a ruling in the case.

Ultimately, the HCJ rejected the residents’ petition. In early May 2022, it also rejected additional petitions filed by residents of the area, after accepting each and every one of the state’s arguments. Cherry-picking facts and relying on an absurd legal interpretation, the court made it clear there was no crime it would not find a way to sanction.

The justices held that the petitions must be rejected outright, as they were filed many years after the firing zone was declared and as the petitioners came to court “with absolutely unclean hands”, having built structures without permits over the years. The justices also held that regarding the matter itself, the petition should be rejected as, in their opinion, the military commander has the power to declare closed military zones in the occupied territory that supersedes the provisions of international law. Finally, the justices held that the petitioners were not “permanent residents” of the area before it was declared a firing zone and rejected the petition. In doing so, they allowed the state to immediately expel the residents and destroy their communities.

The State of Israel cites formal arguments such as “living in a firing zone” and “violating planning and building laws” to justify its policy in Masafer Yatta. These are false claims, meant to conceal Israel’s aspirations to take over the land for its own purposes and use it to benefit the Jewish population only.

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In 2013, village resident Jabriyeh Hamamdeh, then 45, described in testimony she gave B’Tselem field researcher Musa Abu Hashhash the harsh living conditions resulting from Israel’s prevention of development and the repeated attempts to expel the village’s residents.

On Tuesday, 4 August 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and a digger at the community of Khirbet She’b al-Batem in Masafer Yatta. The forces demolished the staff room and the principal’s office at the community school.

On Wednesday, 29 July 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort at Khirbet Jamrurah, northwest of Hebron. The forces demolished an agricultural tent, a tent used as a kitchen and a livestock pen belonging to a family of seven, including three children, who were left homeless.

On Wednesday, 29 July 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort, a digger and a bulldozer at a-Nuwei’mah al-Foqa. The forces demolished a home, a shack used as a livestock enclosure and storage shed, a chicken coop, and a livestock pen belonging to a family of 10, including five children. The forces also demolished two vacant homes belonging to two other families.

On Tuesday, 28 July 2026, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and diggers at Khirbet Ein al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished two residential tents belonging to a family of six, leaving them homeless. The forces also demolished two tents used as livestock enclosures and two livestock pens belonging to the same family.

On Thursday, 16 July 2026, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at the village of Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley. The forces demolished a cinderblock structure and a caravan used as homes by an extended family numbering seven people, including three minors. The forces also demolished two water tanks belonging to the family and their electricity network.

On Tuesday, 14 July 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and a bulldozer at the community of Um al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished a tin-roofed cinderblock structure used as a kitchen.

On Tuesday, 14 July 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a Border Police escort at the ‘Arab al-Jahalin community, west of ‘Asirah al-Qibliyah. The forces demolished the homes of 11 families, numbering 49 people in total, including 25 minors, leaving them homeless. The forces also demolished the 11 livestock enclosures belonging to the families.

On Tuesday, 7 July 2026, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort at the village of a-Rifa’iya, east of Yatta in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished the home of a family of 17, including 10 minors, leaving them homeless. The forces also demolished the family’s water cistern.

On Thursday, 2 July 2026, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at Khirbet ‘Ein al-Hilweh in the Jordan Valley. The forces demolished a residential tent housing a family of six, two tents used as livestock enclosures, a livestock pen, three water tanks and four solar panels.

The forces also demolished a tent used as a storage shed and break area, and three livestock pens belonging to two other families.