Israel Continues To Tear Down Houses in Occupied West Bank

The NGO Betselem denounced that Israel demolished a dozen houses in eight villages spread between the areas of Ramallah, southern Hebron, and the Jordan Valley, all of which are under Israeli security and administrative control.

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"As part of its efforts to seize more land in the West Bank, Israel demolished on Thursday four houses where 18 people lived, including seven minors," the humanitarian NGO said.

The Israeli authorities also confiscated three residential structures, collapsed five facilities under construction, and demolished a dozen facilities that served for sanitary and productive uses.

In the agricultural area of Masafer Yatta, the Israeli authorities cut a two-kilometer-long pipeline that supplied water to four Palestinian villages. This infrastructure cost over US$100,000 and had been donated by international humanitarian organizations.

So far this year, at least 919 Palestinians have lost their homes to demolitions in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a far higher number than the 677 people affected in 2019.

Btselem sees the demolitions as an extreme expression of an Israeli strategy "designed to empty entire areas of the West Bank of its Palestinian residents", something that the Israeli authorities promote through practices such as military training in residential and agricultural areas, denial of access to land, or "the veto" for the Palestinians to build houses or other infrastructure.

Although Israel often claims that Palestinian residences lack building permits, international organizations denounce the virtual impossibility of obtaining them.

In early November, Israeli authorities demolished a Bedouin village in the Jordan Valley, rendering 73 people homeless, including 43 minors.