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During the month of February, the Israeli military demolished homes in three Palestinian villages near settlement bypass road 317, in the occupied West Bank. 

The soldiers entered the village of Qawawis and demolished the homes of five Palestinian families, along with one baking-oven, and then proceeded to the village of Um al-Khair, where they demolished one home and damaged the wall of another. Following this incident, the Israeli military demolished 17 homes in the village of Merihiyya, to the southwest of Jenin.

In another incident, 15 Israeli military jeeps and a bulldozer entered the village of Qawawis, to demolish four homes and an animal pen. One of the demolished homes was over sixty-five years old, and sheltered two families. The soldiers gave the families no time to collect their belongings, only enough to flee their home immediately before a bulldozer began demolishing their animal pens with the animals still inside. During the period in which the Israeli military remained in the village, between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm, a curfew was placed on all inhabitants of the village, who were forced to remain inside the homes. The residents of the demolished homes, on the other hand, were required to stand outside and observe the demolition.

For years now, the Israeli military, in concert with Israeli settlers, has been trying to force Palestinian residents of the south Hebron hills to leave their homes. Due to harassment from the nearby Israeli settlement outposts, several of the young families from Qawawis moved to a nearby town. When the Israeli military then forcibly evacuated the remaining families, a court ordered that the families could return to their homes. Yet, according to a lawyer representing the families, the Israeli military now claims that this court ruling only permits the last inhabitants who fled Qawawis to return, not their children who had fled the assaults of the Israeli settlers at an earlier time.

Additionally, in late February, an Israeli bulldozer and soldiers arrived to the village of Um al-Khair to demolish the home of the al-Hadaleen family, guilty of having built their homes without an Israeli permit. The protests of Sulaiman and his wife Maliha, the owners of the home, served only to get them beaten by the Israeli soldiers, resulting in their hospitalization. Additionally their animal pens were destroyed, leaving sheep and goats in the streets along with their owners. The protests of 22-year-old Mageen, a son of the al-Hadaleen family, ended in futility. Upon his refusal of the Israeli soldiers’ demands that he leave his room, he was arrested, together with an Israeli activist from Ta’ayush.

The Israeli military stated: “Twenty illegal structures were destroyed after demolition orders were issued, and offers were made to the owners to pursue the available options before the planning organizations. The supervisory unit of the civil administration will continue to operate against illegal building activity in the area, and to implement the steps mandated by law against this illegal activity.”

The Israeli military made no provisions for shelter for the families whose homes they have demolished. The families subsequently were compelled to request tents from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Adding to these occurrences, in the village of Merihiyya, the Israeli military arrived and demolished 17 homes, leaving more than 80 persons homeless, the majority of whom are women and children. The village of Merihiyya, to the southwest of Jenin, is a small Bedouin village with 500 inhabitants, poor and completely dependent upon their livestock. Yet, the Israeli military did not allow the residents to bring food from the village before their homes were reduced to a pile of rubble.

The same fate it is being reserved for another 16 homes in three nearby villages, according to the chairperson of the local Palestinian committee against settlers’ projects in that area, Hafiz al-Huraini, which will be demolished during March if the Israeli Supreme Court rejects the appeals.

And the situation doesn’t stop there, tens of other Palestinian families are also waiting to know what is going to happened to their homes and belongings.