AL-QUDS (AP) – The Zionist regime’s military has demolished homes, water tanks and olive orchards in two Palestinian villages in the southern West Bank where some residents are at risk of imminent expulsion, residents and activists said Wednesday.
One of the villages whose structures were demolished on Tuesday is part of an arid area of the West Bank known as Masafer Yatta, which the regime’s military has designated as a live-fire training zone. Some 1,000 residents of the eight hamlets that make up Masafer Yatta are slated for expulsion, an order the regime’s so-called supreme court upheld in May after a two-decade legal battle.
According to images shared by local residents and activists, armored vehicles escorted construction equipment to the demolitions in the villages of Ma’in and Shaab al-Butum, which is part of Masafer Yatta.
Guy Butavia, an activist with the Israeli rights group Taayush, said the army razed five homes, animal pens and cisterns, spilling the contents of people’s lives out onto the cold desert.
“They come and demolish your house. It’s winter. It’s cold. What’s next? Where are they going to sleep that night?” he said.
Most residents of the area have remained in place since the ruling, even as Zionist troops periodically roll in to demolish structures. But they could be forced out at any time.
Local officials and rights group said Zionist officials have informed them that they would soon forcibly remove more than 1,000 residents from the area.
“There is a genuine concern that a grave war crime will be committed,” said Roni Pelli, a lawyer working with ACRI.
COGAT, the Zionist military body that deals with Palestinian civilian affairs, declined to comment.
Tuesday’s demolition comes against the backdrop of a new cabinet in the occupied territories, headed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where proponents of the regime’s West Bank settlement enterprise hold influential portfolios and are expected to both drive up settlement building and suppress construction for Palestinians in Area C.