Demolitions and confiscations in communities facing expulsion

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 escort and a digger at Steih, an area south of Jericho, and demolished three vacation homes owned by three families from East Jerusalem.

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 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.

On Tuesday, 3 September 2024, Civil Administration personnel arrived with a military and Border Police escort at the Palestinian community of Kh. a-Tiran in the South Hebron Hills and destroyed a water cistern.