The Israeli military authorities issued demolition and stop-work orders on Monday against a school and eight structures in the Palestinian community of Shaab al-Batn, in Masafer Yatta, near Hebron (Al-Khalil), the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Local activist Rateb al-Jabour said that 50 students from the area currently study at the school recently built by the Palestinian Authority to accommodate families in Masafer Yatta.
For 22 years, I watched as Israel tried to slowly break up the communities of Masafer Yatta. Now, the fate of eight of our Palestinian villages hangs on a final court hearing to be held tomorrow.
By @basel_adrahttps://t.co/tYA7I01l5N
— +972 Magazine (@972mag) March 14, 2022
The Israeli army also informed eight residents to stop work on building shelters and animal barns in the village under the pretext the area is considered Area C.
“Masafer Yatta, which exists in complete and utter isolation from the rest of the occupied West Bank, is located in ‘Area C’, which constitutes the larger territorial chunk, about 60%, of the West Bank,” Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle wrote in a recent article.
For 20+ years, Israel has waged a legal battle against the residents of Masafer Yatta in an attempt to evict them from their homes in order to use the area as an IDF training ground, called "Firing Zone 918". Meanwhile, residents are forbidden from building on their own land. pic.twitter.com/xQ6aPaMjCh
— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) March 13, 2022
“Unfortunately for Masafer Yatta, and those living in ‘Area C’, the degree of control is so suffocating that every aspect of Palestinian life – freedom of movement, education, access to clean water, and so on – is controlled by a complex system of Israeli military ordinances that have no regard whatsoever for the well-being of the beleaguered communities,” Baroud added.
(The Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
