Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Wednesday, 26 July 2023, at around 8:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and two crane trucks at the Badu al-Ka’abneh School in the community of al-Ka’abneh Badu a-Mu’arrajat, east of Jericho. The forces confiscated 16 pallets with about 1,500 blocks intended for building a 500-meter fence around the school. Two days earlier, on 24 July 2023, Civil Administration personnel arrived at the community and instructed the school administration to stop work on the construction of the fence.

On Monday, 24 July 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at Kh. Humsah a-Tahta in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished the seasonal home of a family of seven, including five minors. The family lives in the town of Tammun part of the year.

On Thursday, 20 July 2023, at around 11:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel and a soldier arrived at Khirbet Yarza in the northern Jordan Valley and confiscated a tractor and a car belonging to the Abu Daher family, claiming they had been brought into Firing Zone 901. The two drove the vehicles to a military base near Khirbet Samrah. 

From there, the two went to Khirbet Humsah al-Foqa, confiscated two tractors belonging to the Abu al-Kabash family that were parked near the family home, claiming they had been brought into Firing Zone 903. The two ordered the family members to drive the tractors to a nearby military base. 

On Tuesday, 18 July 2023, in the early afternoon, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a Border Police escort and two bulldozers at Khirbet Birin, northeast of the town of Yatta. The forces demolished a concrete and barbed wire fence around farmland and uprooted about 100 olive and almond trees, as wells as grapevines.

On Monday, 17 July 2023, at around 7:00 A.M., Israeli Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and bulldozer to the community of al-Muntar, al-Quds District, south-east of the town of al-‘Eizariyah. Israeli forces demolished the homes of three families, leaving 13 people homeless, including seven minors, damaging a livestock pen and vandalizing a water tank. In addition, the forces demolished a house under construction intended for a member of the community after his marriage and parts of three additional houses.   

In 2019, settlers established the “Tzon Kedar Farm” adjacent to the community.   

 On Sunday, 16 July 2023, members of the Widady a -Tahta community were forced to abandon their place of residence in fear for their lives due to state-backed settler violence and other abuses carried out by the Israeli authorities. 

Residents of the community – who belong to the extended Abu ‘Awad family and number 20 people in total, including 12 minors – loaded all their belongings onto trucks and left the family’s compound, where they lived for 50 years.  

Khirbet Widady consisted of two communities until now, Khirbet Widady a-Tahta and Khirbet Widaday a-Foqa, where five families numbering 22 people in total, including 13 minors, remain. These communities – like all the communities Israel is working to expel – have never been connected to the water and electricity grids. They have relied on water stored in cisterns and, in recent years, acquired solar panels that provide limited electricity. 

Approximately two years ago, Israeli settlers built an outpost roughly 500 meters away from the Abu-‘Awad family homes in Widady a-Tahta, and ever since – with the help of Israeli soldiers – have tried to prevent them from grazing their flock in the pasturelands surrounding their homes, by way of – among other things – flying drones that scare the sheep and disperse them. 

At the end of 2022, B’Tselem documented two settler attacks on the family’s homes (24 December 2022; 31 December 2022).  

In March 2023, B’Tselem documented two more attacks, one in the presence of an Israeli soldier (4 March 2023; 11 March 2023). 

Additionally, about a year ago, the Civil Administration issued demolition orders for all structures in the compound, which consist of three homes and one livestock enclosure. 

On Tuesday, 27 June 2023, at approximately 4:00 P.M., two Israeli settlers arrived at the community and threatened Salah Abu ‘Awad (27) with handguns while he was grazing his flock near his home. Abu ‘Awad fled, leaving the flock behind, and watched from a distance as the settlers led his sheep toward Route 60. He called other family members for help, and when the settlers saw them, they left the flock and went toward their outpost. The family brought the flock back to their community. When Abu ‘Awad reported the incident to the police, the officers claimed they could not assist him because the community was living on leased land that did not belong to its residents. 

Immediately following the incident and in the wake of the police’s response, the Abu ‘Awad family decided that remaining at the site put their lives at risk and began preparations to leave. Read more...

On Wednesday, 12 July 2023, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the community of Khirbet a-Tiran, south of the town of a-Dhahiriyah. The forces razed a roughly one-kilometer dirt road connecting the community to its agricultural lands. The community is home to three families whose homes are not connected to the water or power grids.

On Wednesday, 12 July 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer to the village of al-Baq’ah, Hebron District, and destroyed a water cistern used by six families numbering a total of 30 people for domestic consumption and irrigation. 

On Monday, 10 July 2023, the Palestinian Bedouin shepherding community of al-Baq’ah, to the east of Ramallah, was forcibly transferred. In the days leading up to Monday, settlers from an outpost next to al-Baq’ah, one of seven established after the pogrom in Turmusaya on 21 June 2023, attacked the community daily. On Friday, 7 July 2023, a tent home in the community was set on fire while no one was in. 

The community of al-Baq’ah was home to 33 people, including 21 minors. The residents, who disassembled their homes and livestock enclosures yesterday, told B’Tselem field researchers that they feared for their lives and there was no one to protect them. Because of this, and having no other choice, they decided to leave the place they called home for decades.

The outpost that settlers established 50 meters away from the community’s homes is a farm with 60 to 70 sheep and two horses. The settlers set up solar panels and connected the outpost to the water infrastructure of the Neve Erez settlement, which was established in 2001, some 100 meters north of al-Baq’ah. They took control of the only road connecting al-Baq’ah to the nearby Alon Route, and have been grazing their sheep in the pasturelands that served the al-Baq’ah community and harassing shepherds from the Mleihat family, who grazed their sheep in the area.  

On Friday, 7 July 2023, at around 6:30 A.M., a tent home located 100 meters from the outpost, was set on fire. The family living in the tent had been sleeping in another tent belonging to the extended family out of fear that settlers would harass them at night. The family saw the fire from a distance and called the police, but no officers came.  

Israel has created an impossible reality and untenable life for residents, and Israel bears sole responsible for their expulsion.  Read more... 

On Thursday, 6 July 2023, at around 7:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a crane truck at the community of Wadi Abu Hindy, southeast of the town of al-‘Eizariyah, al-Quds District. The forces confiscated a shipping container used as a livestock enclosure.

On Thursday, 22 June 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the community of Khirbet al-Maleh (Hamamat al-Maleh) in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished two houses under construction funded by a humanitarian aid organization. One of the houses was designed to house a family of six, including four minors. The other was meant for a newlywed couple. The demolition was carried out pursuant to Military Order No. 1797. 

On Thursday, 15 June 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration and Jordan Valley settlement regional council personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the community of Khirbet Um al-Jamal in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces dismantled and confiscated four dwellings donated to the residents by a humanitarian organization, as well as sunshades belonging to four other families.