After a breakdown in mediation between the State of Israel and the Palestinian villages of Massafer Yatta, Israeli authorities destroyed 24 homes in the South Hebron Hills. The homes lie within an area which Israel claims as Firing Zone 918, in which approximately 1000 Palestinian civilians live in 8 villages.
Early on the morning of February 2nd, Israeli soldiers closed access to Firing Zone 918 and placed checkpoints near the Palestinian villages of Bir al Idd and Al Fakheit. In the village of Jinba, Israeli soldiers and border police demolished 15 houses. They also fired sound grenades and teargas. Several solar electric panels were confiscated by the Israeli civil administration. In nearby Halaweh village Israeli forces destroyed another 9 houses, bringing the total to 24. Israeli police confiscated a car used by international volunteers and Palestinian activists.
Israeli Firing Zones take up approximately 18 percent of the West Bank’s land area. Residents of Massafer Yatta live inside Firing Zone 918. They have refused to leave their land and have been engaged in court ordered mediation for several years. The Israeli military has issued demolition orders for the region’s clinic and two primary schools, as well as the villagers’ homes, mosques, agricultural buildings and wells. The families depend on the land for their way of life. Because they primarily subsist through dry land agriculture and the grazing of sheep and goats, relocation is economically impossible.
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