Israeli Forces Dismantle Tents, Structures in Jordan Valley

Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley regularly face evacuations and house demolitions. (Photo: ActiveStills.org)

Israeli forces Wednesday morning dismantled tents and other structures in the community of Khirbet Humsa al-Fouqa, in the northern Jordan Valley, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Local sources confirmed that Israeli forces cordoned the community off before they raided it and dismantled the Palestinian-owned tents and structures.

Last night, Israeli troops stormed the community and prevented activists from building shelters for 85 residents whose tents were demolished yesterday and left without a shelter to protect them from the cold desert night weather.

The demolition was condemned by Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh as an act of “organized state terrorism, which involves ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population by favoring the settlers in the Israeli election campaigns for which our people pay for with their land, property, and suffering.”

The Jordan Valley covers an area of about 1.6 million dunams (1,600 km2) and constitutes around 30 percent of the total occupied West Bank. According to a previous government report, the Valley includes about 280,000 dunams of arable land, 50,000 of which are still used by Palestinians and 27,000 by illegal Jewish settlers.

The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.

(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)

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