Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

On Monday, 1 July 2024, at around 10:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and three diggers at the town of al-‘Auja in Jericho District and demolished a four-unit residential building still under construction that also had seven storage spaces.

The ruins of the building in al-‘Auja, Photo: ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem  

On Wednesday, 26 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and Border Police officers, and equipped with a digger, at the Palestinian community of Um Lasafa in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished an agricultural structure.

On Wednesday, 26 June 2024, at around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and three diggers at the al-Matar area, located east of Jericho. The forces demolished a home belonging to a family, leaving six people, including two minors, homeless. The forces also demolished a residential structure still under construction, a shed, a livestock pen, a shipping container used as a storage room, and two water tanks, all owned by the family whose home was demolished.

The forces also demolished four vacation homes, three swimming pools, a fence surrounding one of the homes and a fence surrounding two plots designated for construction.

On Wednesday morning, 26 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel came with a military and Border Police escort and three diggers to the community of Khirbet Umm al-Kheir in the South Hebron Hills. The forces demolished the homes of two families: a stone structure belonging to a family of seven, including five minors, and a residential complex consisting of two stone structures and five shacks belonging to a family of 17, including 11 minors. In 2009, the Civil Administration issued 11 stop-work orders for structures in the community, including the homes of these families.

The forces also demolished a guest hall (diwan) and a solar power room that supplied electricity to all the homes in the community.

One of the homes demolished belonged to ‘Eid Hadalin, an artist who has exhibited work alongside well-known Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.This demolition is meant to appease the settlers,” said Hadalin. “Demolishing our homes, and so demolishing our lives.”

The latest demolition is part of the Israeli apartheid regime's efforts to drive Palestinian communities out of the South Hebron Hills and other areas of the West Bank, and transfer their lands to Jewish hands

On Sunday, 23 June 2024, around 8:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a bulldozer at the village of ‘Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta, west of Jericho and demolished a home, leaving a family of five, including three minors, homeless. During the demolition, the forces destroyed three water tanks belonging to the family.

The forces then continued to ‘Aqbat Jaber R.C., where they demolished the homes of two families, numbering seven people in total, including five minors, leaving them homeless.

Around 10:00 P.M., the forces arrived in the Steih area south of Jericho, where they demolished two vacation homes owned by two East Jerusalem residents.

On Monday, 10 June 2024, around 9:00 A.M., Civil Administration personnel came with a military escort and a digger to the village of Furush Beit Dajan in the central Jordan Valley. The forces demolished a tin shack donated by a humanitarian aid organization to a family of five, leaving the family homeless. They also demolished an agricultural pool donated by the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture to two families, which they used to irrigate crops.

On Sunday, 9 June 2024, around 3:00 P.M., representatives of the Jordan Valley Settlement Council came with a military escort to the area of ‘Atuf in the Jordan Valley. They instructed a Palestinian who was setting up tents intended to serve as sheep pens to stop his work, load the three tents onto a cart hitched to the digger he was using, and drive the digger to a nearby military base. There, they confiscated the digger and the tents, citing unauthorized presence in the area.

The next day, 10 June, around 11:00 P.M., council representatives came with a military escort to the village of Kardalah in the northern Jordan Valley and confiscate a digger being used inside the village, claiming such work was forbidden there. The forces detained the driver overnight, after he verbally confronted them.

On Thursday, 6 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived at the community of Kh. a-Rahwah, South Hebron Hills, with a military and Border Police escort and a digger. They demolished seven homes, an outdoor kitchen and a storage room, leaving seven families numbering 40 people in total, including 24 minors, homeless.

On Thursday, 6 June 2024, around 10:00 A.M., representatives of the Jordan Valley regional settlement council came with a military and police escort to a section of Route 90 by the village of ‘Ein al-Beida and confiscated the contents of five roadside vegetable stalls. They threw the goods into a garbage truck and left.

On Wednesday, 5 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the al-Matar area, located east of Jericho. The forces demolished a seasonal home belonging to a family of two, a fence around it, a storage shed and six water tanks. They also uprooted fruit trees. The forces demolished two additional fences around plots designated for construction and owned by East Jerusalem residents.

On Tuesday, 4 June 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived at the community of al-Jawaya in the South Hebron Hills with a military and Border Police escort and two diggers. The forces demolished the home of a family of 10, including seven minors, leaving them homeless.

On Tuesday, 28 May 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military escort and a digger at the village of ‘Ein a-Duyuk a-Tahta in the southern Jordan Valley and demolished a house, leaving two people homeless. The forces also destroyed a vacation home and its swimming pool and razed fruit trees in the yard, as well as a storage room and a sheep pen owned by another resident.