Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Saturday, 19 October 2024, a group of five settlers, some armed, arrived with three dogs at the community of Jurat al-Kheil. The hamlet, which lies northwest of Hebron and has 20 structures, is home to 10 families, numbering 40 people in total, including 16 minors. One of the settlers pointed his gun at a community resident’s head and threatened to shoot him and others if they did not leave permanently. A dog the settlers set on the residents bit another man, who was taken for treatment in the city of Halhul.

The next day, Sunday, 20 October 2024, around 7:00 A.M., about 20 settlers arrived at the community on foot, with more arriving in two cars. Fearing for their lives, the entire community fled towards the village of Sa’ir. One member watched the community from a nearby hill and saw the settlers going around the houses and smashing their windows. He tried to call the police several times, but no officers arrived. The settlers left around noon, at which point some residents returned to the community and saw the windows had, in fact, been smashed and that the settlers had also stolen some iron sheeting installed to protect the windows and farming equipment. After the returning residents arrived at the community, the settlers came back in a car, forcing the residents to flee once more and watch from afar as the settlers walked around the houses, destroying property. The settlers stayed in the area all night.

On Tuesday, 22 October 2024, some residents returned to the community and discovered that the settlers had destroyed three of the residential buildings, damaged the roofs of all remaining 17 structures, and cut down and uprooted dozens of olive trees and grapevines. Shortly after their arrival, settlers returned in two cars, one belonging to the settlement security guard, and with dogs. They swore at the residents and told them to leave. The residents obeyed out of fear, and then the settlers stole five water tanks and towed them towards the settlement of Metzad, while other settlers drove up to the community in several cars and stole items from residents’ homes. The residents filed a complaint about the settlers’ actions at the Etzion police station that same day. The next day, 24 October 2024, community residents returned once more, and within an hour, the settlement guard arrived with three female soldiers, who told the residents to leave and pushed them to the main road leading to Sa’ir. As of 30 October 2024, community residents have not returned home.

On Tuesday, 15 October 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and equipped with two diggers at the Palestinian village of ‘Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta, west of Jericho, and demolished a vacation home owned by a family of ten, including five minors, from Hebron. The forces also demolished a swimming pool in the yard and a surrounding fence, and damaged two water tanks.

On Tuesday, 1 October 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and a digger at the community of Khirbet a-Rakeez in the South Hebron Hills, where they demolished a residential tent belonging to a family of seven, including five minors.

On Tuesday, 1 October 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at Steih, an area south of Jericho, and demolished three vacation homes owned by three families from East Jerusalem.

On Thursday, 26 September 2024, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the community of al-Burj in the northern Jordan Valley. The forces demolished a home, an outhouse, a livestock enclosure and three solar panels belonging to a family.

On Monday, 23 September 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the village of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley. The Israeli forces destroyed a three-story residential building housing two families numbering 12 people in total, including four minors. The ground floor served as a warehouse owned by the families. The Israeli forces also destroyed two water tanks and some solar panels on the roof of the building.

On Wednesday, 18 September 2024, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort and two diggers at the Palestinian village of al-Buweib in the South Hebron Hills and destroyed a water cistern used for irrigation.

On Monday 16 September 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the Palestinian community of Baryat Hizma, al-Quds District. They took down and confiscated three livestock enclosures belonging to one family.

On Monday, 9 September 2024, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and three diggers at the west side of the Palestinian village of Marj Na’jah. The forces demolished three caravans used as seasonal residences by five families numbering 28 people in total, including 16 minors. The forces also demolished six agricultural sheds and razed ten palm trees owned by the same families.

On Thursday, 5 September 2024, eight families from the extended al-Mhanyah family, numbering a total of 50 people, including 28 minors, returned to the seven shacks and tents they left where they live most of the year, northwest of the village of al-Jiftlik, after spending the summer in the Tubas area as they do every year.

The families arrived at the site around 6:00 P.M., in a truck loaded with additional tents and equipment. Soon after, officials from the Jordan Valley settlement regional council arrived with a military escort and stopped the residents from unloading their cargo. The council officials and soldiers expelled the families from their place of residence and ordered one of the men to drive the truck to a nearby military base, where they confiscated it with its cargo. The families contacted the DCO. They received their truck and its cargo four days later, along with a warning that any vehicle arriving at the site where they lived would be confiscated.

The families have pitched their tents near the community of Khirbet ‘Alan, southwest of al-Jiftlik, about two kilometers south of their previous site.

During the first week of September 2024, three armed settlers arriving from the direction of the settlement of Maskiyyot and the outpost of Havat Eretz Shemesh, entered the community of Khirbet Wadi al-Faw in the northern Jordan Valley. The outpost was built near the community in the late 2010s. The three settlers walked around the homes of the last two families remaining in the coummunity.

On September 5, 2024, about eight settlers entered the community, walked around the tents, pepper sprayed residents, threatened them at gunpoint and told them they had to leave.

Fearing for their lives, brothers Walid Ka’abneh and Mahmoud Ka’abneh and their families took down their tents the next day (6 September 2024), loaded all their possessions onto their vehicle and drove to the ‘Atuf area to set up the tents. However, that same evening, soldiers and members of the Jordan Valley settlement regional council arrived and forbade them from setting up the tents. The families were forced to return to the community site in Wadi al-Faw, where settlers were waiting for them. The settlers shouted and swore at the families as they unloaded their vehicle. The settlers then left, and the families set up some of the tents. The next day, soldiers and members of the settlement regional council arrived, walked around the tents and accused Mahmoud Ka’abneh of assaulting the settlers the day before, but left without taking any action.

As of 9 September 2024, the two families are still at the community site, fearing for their lives and ready to leave at any moment.

On Wednesday, 4 September 2024, at around 4:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the Palestinian community of Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley and demolished a structure used by farmers as a break room.