TEL AVIV – The Israel army has demolished homes of nearly 80 Palestinians, mostly minors in the single largest Israeli demolition of a Palestinian community in over a decade.
Israeli authorities use heavy machinery to demolish 76 structures in the Humsa al Bqai’a Bedouin community in the northern Jordan Valley, they called it illegal residence due to lack of a permit. The rare operation targeting an entire community at once includes mostly children.
The demolition is also the largest demolition in four years in terms of the number of people made homeless in a single operation.
Just back from the Jordan Valley. This is some of the devastation left yesterday by Israeli bulldozers that ripped through Khirbet Humsah, a remote Palestinian herder community. Rain has just started to fall and residents have worked through night to salvage belongings. pic.twitter.com/c8iz7gyIC3
— Sarit Michaeli (@saritm0) November 4, 2020
With the premises, almost 30 tonnes of food and water for the use were also destroyed.
Red Cross on Wednesday gives tents and helped by activists but their future remains uncertain as many of the families were seen trying to salvage their belongings from the wreckage in the freezing rain.
Condemning the act, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called the act as “methodical destruction of the possibility of a Palestinian state.”
As the attention is focused on #USElection2020, Israel chose this evening to commit another crime/ cover it up: to demolish 70 Palestinian structures, incl. homes, in Khirbet Humsa al-Foqa in the northern Jordan Valley, displacing ~80 Palestinian citizens, incl. women/children.
— Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh د. محمد اشتية (@DrShtayyeh) November 3, 2020
This is despite indications from the Israeli authorities that such orders would be frozen given the health implications hindering social distancing measures and lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic. Often such demolitions are deemed illegal under international law.
According to data compiled by OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian office, this was the single largest demolition since 19 July 2010, in terms of numbers of structures affected. According to the UN, the destruction of property in an occupied territory like the West Bank is prohibited under international humanitarian law, unless absolutely necessary for military operations. In a recent statement they said during the time of a pandemic it “is particularly worrying as it further compounds the overall situation in the West Bank.
While you were eagerly following the US elections, Israel has demolished an entire community’s residential compound, leaving 74 people, 41 of them minors, homeless. pic.twitter.com/7hA5AHdFn0
— B’Tselem בצלם بتسيلم (@btselem) November 4, 2020
Data depict that 798 Palestinians in the West Bank have been left homeless by Israeli demolitions so far this year its highest annual tally since 2016.
