Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Tuesday morning, 9 January 2024, soldiers arrived at the community of Ehmeir in al-Farisiyah, the Jordan Valley, and put up tents near residents’ homes and in their cultivated fields. They proceeded to train there for two days, including use of live fire by the homes, despite giving the residents no prior warning.
On Sunday, 21 January, soldiers again entered the community’s territory, put up tents and proceeded to train for two days with live fire near homes.
That day, soldiers also entered the nearby community of Khirbet Samrah and the agricultural areas of Khallet Ajme’ and Sahel al-Burj, put up tents in residents’ wheat fields and trained with live fire. Because of the training, area residents did not tend to their fields that day.

On Monday morning, 22 January 2024, Jordan Valley settlement council personnel arrived with Border Police officers at some pastureland southeast of the village of al-Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, where two village residents were grazing their flock of 300 heads of sheep.
The forces trapped the flock, claiming the area was a closed military zone, loaded the sheep onto trucks and handed each of the shepherds a 75,000-NIS fine (~ USD 20,200). They told the shepherds they would also be charged for the flock’s boarding until its release. The shepherds paid the fine on the spot, and their flock was returned to them.

On Wednesday morning, 17 January 2024, Israeli soldiers arrived in a military jeep at the a-Sakut area, detained a shepherd and forbade him from grazing his flock in the area.

On Wednesday, 17 January 2024, at around 4:00 P.M., Israeli soldiers arrived at the community of Um al-Jamal, in the northern Jordan Valley, detained a local resident in his car and then confiscated it claiming it had been taken into Firing Zone 900. The soldiers ordered the man to drive the car to a military base near the community of Kh. Samrah, where they held him for five hours.

On Monday, 8 January 2024, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and a bulldozer to the community of Birin, located northeast of the town of Yatta in Hebron District. The force demolished the home of a family, leaving 19 people, 7 of them minors, homeless.

On Friday morning, 5 January 2024, Jordan Valley Settlement Council staff arrived at some farmland belonging to two families from the town of Tubas, located east of the community of Nab’a al-Ghazal (al-Farisiyah) in the Jordan Valley. The forces confiscated a tractor that was being used to plow and ordered the driver to drive it to the settlement of Rotem, about 200 meters away from the site. The driver was detained at the settlement for about half an hour, before being told by the soldiers to drive the tractor to a military base near Kh. Samrah.

On Wednesday, 27 December 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, two bulldozers and a digger to the community of al-Jawaya in the South Hebron Hills. They demolished a home, leaving a family of eight, including four minors, homeless.

On Tuesday, 26 December 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and two bulldozers to the northwestern part of Furush Beit Dajan, a village in the Jordan Valley. The forces demolished five homes of five families numbering 25 people in total, 8 of them minors. Three of the homes demolished were built before 1967. 
The forces also demolished three seasonal homes of three families numbering 20 people in total, 7 of them minors, as well as a concrete wall around one of them. In addition, the forces demolished a pool used to irrigate crops in a three-dunam plot of land.

On Thursday, 21 December 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and three diggers to the community of Khirbet a-Twayel in the Jordan Valley. The forces demolished the homes of five families numbering 26 people in total, 16 of them minors, as well as four kitchen tents, an outhouse, three sheds and a tent used as livestock enclosures, a livestock pen. The also demolished two water containers belonging to four of the families and a barbed wire fence around their homes, as well as a shed used as a livestock enclosure by another family.
After the demolition, the municipality of ‘Aqraba donated substitute tents to the families.

On Saturday, 16 December 2023, around 10:30 A.M., soldiers arrived in a military jeep at land east of the village of Furush Beit Dajan and confiscated a tractor from farmer Tawfiq Haj Muhammad, on the grounds he was working within Firing Zone 903. The soldiers drove the tractor to a military camp nearby.

On Tuesday, 12 December 2023, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and two bulldozers at a farm in the al-Khazuq area, located by the side of Route 90, north of the village of Marj Na’jah. The farm is owned by a family from the village. The forces demolished two agricultural water reservoirs and four agricultural structures, two of which date back to 1967 and had been used for storage and as a break room for farmers. The forces also destroyed about 180 solar panels used to run a generator to pump water from cisterns and irrigation pipes and confiscated the generator.

On Wednesday, 6 December 2023, at around 10:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at Kh. Um Qusah, east of the village of a-Zuweidin in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished two residential structures belonging to a family of 20, including 16 minors and two livestock enclosures it owns, as well as two residential structures belonging to another family, numbering a total of 18 people, including 13 minors. The forces also demolished two livestock enclosures owned by the second family. Both families were left homeless.
During the demolition, residents and soldiers got into an altercation, and a soldier fired live rounds in the air. When the demolition ended, the forces arrested a local resident.