Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Tuesday, 28 November 2023, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort, two diggers and a bulldozer to the ‘Arqub Yakin area, southeast of the town of Bani Na’im. They demolished a two-story home, leaving six people, including four minors, homeless. 

The forces then proceeded south to Khirbet a-Deirat, where they demolished another two-story home, leaving a family of five, including three minors, homeless. 

They then moved on to the village of Um Lasafa, where they demolished another home, leaving another family of five, including three minors, homeless. 

On Monday, 27 November 2023, at around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and a digger to the community of Khallet al-Furn in the South Hebron Hills, and demolished a structure farmers used for resting, three agricultural storage sheds and an outhouse.

On Wednesday, 22 November 2023, at around 10:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the community of She’b al-Batem in the South Hebron Hills and demolished the homes of two families, leaving nine people, including five minors, homeless. Israeli and international activists were present at the scene, and the forces arrested one of them. The families were not given an order and were told verbally that the area belonged to the outpost of Avigayil.

The forces then moved on to the al-Khalediah area, southeast of the town of Yatta, where they demolished a water cistern used to water livestock. From there, they continued to the community of Kh. Emneizal, where they cut a pipe meant to supply water to the community of Kh. Wadi Ejheish.

On Tuesday, 21 November 2023, at around 7:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with members of the Jordan Valley settlement regional council at the village of Furush Beit Dajan and confiscated a cement mixer and a concrete pump, with their trucks, claiming they had been used to build an agricultural water reservoir without a permit. The Israeli officials ordered the drivers to take the vehicles to a parking lot near the town of Huwarah.

On Thursday, 28 Sept. 2023, at around 8:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a digger to the village of Khirbet Emneizel in the South Hebron Hills. The forces sawed off and confiscated a 270-meter pipe running from the village to Wadi Ejheish. The pipe was supposed to provide water to the community and to the community of Wadi a-Rakhim north of it, as Israel prohibits both from hooking up to the water grid. Laying the pipeline was funded by Action Against Hunger.  

On Tuesday morning, 26 Sept. 2023, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a bulldozer to the community of a-Nu'eimeh al-Foqa, which lies north of Jericho, and demolished the home of 11 people, eight of them minors, leaving the family homeless. The forces also demolished a livestock pen and a chicken coop belonging to the family.

On Monday, 18 September 2023, at around 7:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the village of Furush Beit Dajan in the Jordan Valley and demolished a home under construction designed to house a family of six, including four minors, as well as a break room in an agricultural plot.  

From there, the forces proceeded southeast to the village of al-Jiftlik, where they demolished a home under construction designed to house a family of nine, including three minors. 

On Sunday, 4 September 2023, at around 11:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at Kh. Um al-Khus in the South Hebron Hills and confiscated a farmer’s tractor, claiming he had worked outside the area the Civil Administration allows him to cultivate. A member of the Civil Administration drove the tractor to a military base in the area.

On Sunday, 3 September 2023, at around 1:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort at farmlands near Qawawis, in the South Hebron Hills, and confiscated a farmer’s tractor, claiming he had worked outside the area the Civil Administration allows him to cultivate. One of the soldiers drove the tractor to a military base in the area.

On Monday, 28 August 2023, in the afternoon, activists from the village of Jenbah in Masafer Yatta, visited schools in the area. Upon returning to the village, at around 2:00 P.M., soldiers and Civil Administration personnel arrived, confiscated seven jeeps owned by village residents and drove them to a nearby military base.

On Tuesday, 22 August 2023, at around 7:00 P.M., soldiers detained a resident of the community of Kh. Jenbah in Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills, while he was driving his car at the entrance to the community. The soldiers searched the car and confiscated it, claiming it had entered a firing zone. They ordered him to drive the car to a base the Israeli military had established about one kilometer away from the community. 

On Monday, 21 August 2023, at around 6:30 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and bulldozers at ‘Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta, west of Jericho, and demolished the homes of two families numbering 14 people in total, including six minors, as well as two livestock enclosures and a shed belonging to one of the families. They also destroyed four water tanks. Both families were left homeless. The forces also demolished a house under construction designed to house a family of eight, including six minors, and two vacation homes, one under construction, owned by two families from East Jerusalem and located some two kilometers away.