Israel demolishes 27 homes and makes 118 people homeless, 17 more houses also slated for destruction

The Civil Administration in the West Bank on Tuesday demolished 23 homes and three outhouses in the southern Hebron hills villages of Jinba and Halawa. According to Israeli activists who reached Jinba by midday, shortly after the demolitions, 78 people had been living in the newly-built homes, including 60 children. In Jerusalem the Jerusalem municipality destroyed in thelast days four homes, which made 40 people homeless.
Fifteen of the demolished structures were in the south Hebron area in the villages of Jinba and Halawa. Many were built with financing provided by European and other foreign agencies. All 12 villages in the area developed in the 19th century from settlements of cave-dwellers, who had originally inhabited the numerous caves in the area.

Jerusalem municipality demolishes house

Bulldozers of the Israeli Municipality of Jerusalem Wednesday demolished a Palestinian-owned under construction house in Wadi Qadoom neighborhood in the East Jerusalem town of Silwan, under the pretext there was no licence for the building.

Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that Israeli police forces, accompanied with bulldozers, and a municipal staff, stormed the town of Silwan in the pre-dawn hours, sealed off Wadi Qadoom and surrounding areas, before proceeding to demolish the 300-square-meters house, which was built only three months ago and belonged to local Samer Nassar.

The Nassar family said that the demolition took place without any prior notice, noting that the building costs amounted to 180 thousand Israeli Shekels (over 35 thousand Dollars).

Israel demolishes houses and restaurant in Jerusalem and five Bedouin dwellings east of the city

The destroyed part of the restaurant in Beit Safafa.

Israeli bulldozers under army escort on Thursday demolished three Palestinian structures built without construction permits in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Silwan and Beit Safafa, the owners told Ma'an.
Nadia Abu Diab said that Jerusalem municipality excavators tore down a two-story building and unfinished apartment belonging to her family in Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.She said the 125-square meter apartment had been under construction since September last year, and that her family had been in the process of obtaining a license. She said the Jerusalem municipality demolished the apartment without prior notice.
Separately, in Beit Safafa, a Palestinian neighborhood divided between East and West Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers demolished part of a restaurant belonging to local resident Imad Burqan. Burqan told Ma'an the Jerusalem municipality demolished an extension of the Mediterranean Restaurant made of tin sheets and steel bars that he had added to the building about three months ago.Construction licenses are very expensive and difficult to obtain for Palestinians, notably in the Jerusalem area, in a bid by Israeli authorities to force Palestinians out and change the demographic balance of the city.

Israel destroys two homes of families of Palestinian attackers in Jerusalem

Israeli forces on Monday demolished the family home of a Palestinian attacker killed in October and sealed off the home of another attacker's family with cement, the families told Ma'an.
The homes, in the Jabal al-Mukabbir neighborhood of East Jerusalem, belonged to relatives of Alaa Abu Jamal and Baha Elayyan who were both shot dead on Oct. 13 after carrying out separate attacks that left four Israelis dead. The Israeli authorities have been holding the bodies of Alaa Abu Jamal and Baha Elayyan since they were shot dead in another controversial Israeli practice that has been seen by some as further raising tensions.
Israeli forces reportedly stormed the homes and ordered the families to evacuate them before they proceeded with the demolitions. Abu Jamal's family told Ma'an that Israeli forces sealed with cement the home of Safa Abu Jamal, Alaa's sister, after claiming to have secret information that it belonged to her slain brother.The home consisted of one floor and three apartments. It was inhabited by Safa, her husband, and their two children.

Israel demolishes two houses on Wednesday and Thursday, lots of people wounded

''Security measures'' surrounding Wednesday's demolition in the Shu'afat camp near Jerusalem. (Photo Ma'an)

Israeli forces early Thursday demolished the Nablus home of a Palestinian man suspected for organizing an attack in October that left two Israeli settlers dead, Palestinian security sources said.The demolition took place a day after Israeli forces carried out another demolition in the Shu'afat refugee camp near Jerusalem, after which heavy riots broke out.
Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that Israeli forces raided the al-Dahya neighborhood in the southern area of Nablus before demolishing the home of Ragheb Ahmad Muhammed Alawi. Israeli soldiers forced Alawi’s family to evacuate the home hours before the demolition, a relative, Ahmad Alawi, told Ma’an. The home was inside of a four-story building that held eight total apartments, and the demolition likely caused damage to neighboring units, Alawi added. In the six or seven cases that Israel destroyed houses of suspects earlier these months, at least more than double that number of neighbouring houses was destroyed as well in the process, the human rights organisation B'tselem reported recently.

16-year old Palestinian boy and 19-tear old girl killed, Israel confiscates tents donated by Red Cross

The killed girl Maram Hassouna (Photo from Twitter)

Updated. - An Israeli military officer shot and killed a 19-year-old Palestinian girl at a checkpoint Tuesday east of Tulkarem on Tuesday, saying that she had attempted to stab him, Israel's army said. Earlier, on Tuesday morning,  a Palestinian teenage boy was shot dead by Israeli forces in the illegal settlement bloc of Gush Etzion after he allegedly attempted to attack a settler with a knife, Israel's army said.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that the officer killed the young woman at a checkpoint near the illegal settlement of Enav east of Tulkarem because she posed an "immediate danger" to him.The Israeli officer was not injured and Palestinian witmesses said that they had not seen that the girl had a knife.

Shooting Palestinians in the back and ''accidentally'' blowing up the houses of neighbours of ''terrorists''

The homes of neighbours of Muhammed Abu Shahin, whose house was destroyed as punishment, ware destroyed as well. This used to be the house of his neighbours, the family 'Amer. (see below). (Photo B'tselem). 

Soldiers from the Israeli Border Police and the IDF’s Home Front Command shot and killed 22-year-old Yousef Awad in the West Bank village of Budrus last Friday, reporting that he tried to grab a weapon from a soldier. He was, however, from shot in the back and from some distance. 
The Israeli army reported that ''during a violent and illegal riot in the village Budrus, in which approximately 80 Palestinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails toward the security fence, a main rioter who resisted arrest was detained and even tried to grab the weapon of one of the soldiers. The troops responded by shooting him and a hit was confirmed.''
However forensic evidence, an autopsy and photo's of the wounds on Awad's body, show that he was shot from behind. Moreover Palestinian friends who were with him testified that Awad was first shot in a leg with a rubber bullet, and was grabbed by the soldiers. When he managed to get away and ran, he was shot again, in the back this time and with live ammunition,  from a distance of about three meters.

Israel kills two Palestinians in Qalandia during raid to demolish house

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the Qalandiya refugee camp at dawn on Monday during a raid to demolish the home of an alleged Palestinian attacker, witnesses said.
Israeli soldiers shot and killed Laith Assad Munasra, 21, and Ahmad Abu al-Aish, 28, as clashes broke out following a raid involving hundreds of Israeli forces in the densely populated refugee camp. These two were the 87th and 88th Paletiniasn who were killed since 1 October. Dozens of other Palestinians were injured in the clashes, with Yusuf Abu Latifa, 17, critically wounded. Witnesses said Israeli forces stopped an ambulance he was being carried in and detained him while he was en route to hospital.

Israel destroyed 590 homes in 2014 and displaced a record number of 1.177 people

In 2014 the Israeli authorities destroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem, displacing 1,177 people. according to a statement by OCHA, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It is the highest level of displacement recorded by OCHA since it began to monitor the issue systematically in 2008. According to Haaretz the figures for East-Jerusalem were that 208 Palestinians were displaced in 2014 after Israel demolished 97 buildings.
OCHA issued its statement out of concern after a remarkable increase in the level of displacement and destruction in January 2015. Since the beginning of 2015, the Civil Administration of the Israel Defense Forces has demolished 77 homes, livestock pens, farm buildings and other structures of Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, since they were built without building permits. As a result, 110 people, around half of them children, lost their homes at the height of the winter, according to a report compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Israel destroyed 27 homes in Jordan Valley in January, Red Cross stops providing tents

On 8 January 2014 Israeli forces destroyed the Bedouin community of  Khirbet ‘Ein Karzaliyah in the north of the Jordan Valley (Photo B'tselem)

Israeli forces destroyed 27 homes in the occupied Jordan Valley in January, according to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, leaving 147 people homeless. Nearly half of those displaced were children and 65 people lived in communities that had been demolished more than once by Israel, B'Tselem said.
On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it would stop providing tents to Palestinians whose homes had been demolished in the Jordan Valley because Israel would confiscate them.
Last week, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories criticized Israel's demolition of Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley.

Israel continues its demolitions and expulsions in Jordan Valley

One year ago, on 16 June 2009,  Israel demolished in Jiftlik in the Jordan Valley, where mostly Bedouin live. Three families (28 persons,18 of them children) lost their houses. Also some animal sheds and three water wells were destructed. 

Israel's Civil Administration began demolishing over 20 farmer's sheds in the Al-Farisiya area in the northern Jordan Valley on Monday morning, officials said. Director of the Save the Jordan Valley campaign Fathi Khdeirat described the demolitions as an "Israeli policy of collective displacement, aimed at expanding settlement outposts in the northern Jordan Valley."
Khdeirat added that in addition to the sheds, homes and barracks were also razed in the process. Onlookers said they believed the recent increase in demolitions across the Jordan Valley were aimed at changing the area's demographic map "to serve its settlement project."
A spokesman for Israel's Civil Administration said the structures razed on Monday were abandoned tents in a fire danger zone. Owners were issued the order on 27 June, he said, but did not appeal the decision. The official said the area was evacuated because of fire risks.

The Al-Farisiya area is zoned under Area C, which falls under full Israeli security, planning, and construction control. The UN has reported an increase in demolitions across Area C, which encompasses 60 percent of the West Bank. In early July, Israeli authorities demolished Palestinian homes in the Ras Al-Ahmar area, near the northern Jordan Valley district, which residents say remain ongoing. A month earlier, settlers established an illegal outpost in the area following which military guards told locals that they would no longer be permitted to get drinking water from a well nearby the outpost. "We were told to get water from the other villages and collect it in tanks," village representative Abdallah Bisharat said.
Gideon Levy, quoting people from Machsom Watch, wrote that the demolitions on 1 July concerned 15 families. One week earlier 16 more families got demolition or evacuation orders. 

Terrible week in the territories

Scenery from Khirnet Tana near Nablus after house demolitions 

On 10 January 2010, Israeli forces, accompanied by a number of bulldozers, moved into the Kherbat Tana area northeast of Nablus. They demolished the elementary school, 11 mud brick houses, 10 animal sheds, one greenhouse, and one tent. At least 120 Palestinian civilians, mostly children, became homeless.

Also on 10 January 2010, Israeli occupation authorities forced Khaled Yousef Abu Shousha to demolish his 35-square-meter house in al-Tour village near East Jerusalem. A notice was delivered to him on Thursday, 07 January 2010, ordering him to demolish his house within 24 hours.

On 11 January 2010, Israeli settlers from "Gilad" settlement, northeast of Qalqiliya, attacked a number of Palestinian farmers who were farming their lands. Two farmers were injured.

On 13 January 2010, Israeli forces, citing security reasons, razed a 3-donum area of agricultural land planted with olives belonging to the Abu Maria family in Safa village, north of Hebron.

The above are excerts from the weekly report of the Paestinian Centre for Human Rights, regarding the week from 6-13 .January. It was an unusual violent week. During the reporting period, Israeli warplanes launched 7 air strikes against targets in the Gaza Strip. As a result of these strikes, 6 Palestinians were killed, two houses were completely destroyed and another one was heavily damaged.One other Paestinian died of wounds he sustained earlier.Also 8 Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the Westbank were wounded by Isareli gunfire.There were 23 incursions into Palestinian communities, 16 Paletinians were arrested, among them 9 children. Troops at the checkpoints arrested 9 people.
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More excerpts from the report:

 On Thursday evening, 07 January 2010, Israeli soldiers violently beat 6 Palestinian civilians and abducted one of them in al-Litwana area to the south of Hebron.

Two Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded by Israeli troops stationed at military checkpoints. On Friday morning, 08 January 2010, Israeli troops stationed at a military checkpoint at Beit Fajjar intersection on the Hebron-Bethlehem road stopped a Palestinian civilian car. They forced the driver to exit his vehicle and violently beat him. They then abducted him.

On Monday noon, 11 January 2010, Israeli troops stormed the Um al-Khair area to the south of "Carme'el" settlement, south of Hebron. They attacked Palestinian shepherds, including women and children. As a result, 15-year-old Mahmoud 'Eissa Hammad, sustained bruises.

Also in the West Bank, 6 Palestinian civilians, including 3 children and a journalist, were wounded when Israeli forces used force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized by Palestinian civilians and international and Israeli human rights defenders, in protest of the construction of the Annexation Wall in the West Bank.

On 12 January 2010, two Palestinian children were wounded when Israeli troops fired at a number of children who demonstrated against them in Safa village, north of Hebron.

 For the full report click here.