Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers set fire on Wednesday night to several Palestinian homes in the Bedouin community of Khallet al‑Sidra, near Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.
The Jerusalem Governorate reported that colonizer groups stormed the area and ignited multiple residential structures after blocking the only access road to the community earlier in the day, effectively trapping residents as the attackers moved between homes.
Shortly afterward, Israeli occupation forces invaded the community with military vehicles, spreading through the area instead of stopping the ongoing attacks.
Khallet al‑Sidra has been under sustained assault in recent days. Residents and international volunteers have been beaten and injured; several homes and livestock shelters were destroyed; solar panels and surveillance cameras were smashed or seized; and multiple homes and vehicles were burned.
Israeli forces also forced international supporters to evacuate the community, leaving residents even more exposed to colonizer violence.
The escalation reflects a broader pattern of coordinated attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers across Bedouin and rural communities surrounding Jerusalem, where infrastructure, livestock, and basic means of survival are systematically targeted to pressure families into displacement.
It is worth mentioning that the colonizers carried out a series of new attacks on Wednesday across the northern Jordan Valley and Ramallah, in central West Bank, including invasions of Palestinian communities, the seizure of property, and the destruction of agricultural land.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
