Israeli forces demolished a total of four structures in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Daraj, and, in addition to a traditional oven in Umm al-Khair, reported Operation Dove on Wednesday. Many women and men of Umm al-Khair were reportedly assaulted by Israeli soldiers and border police while they tried to peacefully stop the demolition of their property.
Early Wednesday morning, Israeli military forces broke into Umm al-Daraj with two bulldozers.
A toilet, a shelter for the sheep, a cave used as home and a tinplated house which housed eight people were destroyed.
Two hours later, Israeli forces arrived at Umm al-Khair village and declared it a closed military area for internationals and Israeli civilians, according to WAFA’s report. They pushed away the international volunteers who arrived to monitor any human rights violations, threatening them with arrest.
Accompanied by Israeli army and border police, a bulldozer broke into the village, damaging a fence and an olive tree, activists reported.
Umm al-Khair residents gathered in front of their traditional oven and tried to peacefully prevent the demolition, but Israeli soldiers and police attacked them, violently pushing away the women and shoving down a boy. The oven was later reported destroyed without any demolition order.
On October 28, with the inhabitants of Umm al-Khair, the oven was rebuilt by the South Hebron Hills Popular Committee and for the second time, by Palestinians before noon.
Umm al-Khair is a Bedouin locale in Area C, under Israeli civil and military administration. It is located near the Israeli settlement of ‘Karmel’, WAFA reports. The settlement was illegally established during the beginning of the 1980s and expanded in the recent years, most significantly in 2013.
A total of 508 Palestinian Bedouins are said to live in Umm al-Khair. The area and its residents are regularly targeted by Israeli soldiers in order to take over the land and displace its people.
Furthermore, the people of Umm al-Khair routinely experience harassment from Israeli settlers and army, the latest of which on October 28, when an Israeli army force and staff from the Israeli Civil Administration, accompanied by heavy machinery, broke into the village and demolished seven homes.
Palestinians from the South Hebron Hills use non-violent resistance to seek justice and defend human rights.
