Early Wednesday morning, Israeli occupation forces launched a new round of demolitions targeting Bedouin communities in the town of Anata, east of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank.
Military bulldozers, accompanied by armed units, razed several residential structures belonging to members of the Karshan family after sealing off the southeastern area of the town.
Hassan Mleihat, general coordinator of the Al-Baydar Organization for Defending Bedouin Rights, confirmed that the demolitions were carried out without prior notice—an act that violates international legal protections afforded to civilians under occupation.
He described the operation as part of a broader Israeli strategy to forcibly displace Bedouin communities encircling Jerusalem, severing their ties to the land, and erasing their presence.
“These demolitions are not isolated incidents,” Mleihat said. “They are part of a systematic policy of coercive displacement and spatial apartheid, designed to fragment Palestinian society and entrench illegal Israeli control over key geographic corridors around Jerusalem.”
The Bedouin communities in Anata are among dozens facing imminent demolition orders, land confiscation, and the denial of essential infrastructure. These measures are intended to clear the way for the expansion of illegal Israeli colonies and segregated road networks that further entrench apartheid conditions on the ground.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that such actions constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amount to forcible transfer—a war crime under international law.
The demolitions also violate Israel’s obligations as an occupying power to protect the civilian population and refrain from altering the demographic composition of the territory.
This latest demolition highlights the mounting pressure on Palestinian Bedouin communities across the occupied West Bank, who face not only the destruction of their homes but also systematic restrictions on movement, access to water and electricity, and the right to education.
Meanwhile, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers continue to expand nearby outposts with full protection from the Israeli state.
On Tuesday, Israeli occupation authorities forced two Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem to carry out self-demolitions—one of a family home in Silwan, the other of a livestock shelter in al-‘Isawiya.
On Monday morning, Israeli occupation authorities compelled a Palestinian to demolish his home in Isawiya town, northeast of Jerusalem.
While Israel continues to build and expand its illegal colonies, Palestinian communities and towns in occupied Jerusalem and various areas in the occupied West Bank continue to be denied the right to build homes and property under various allegations meant to prevent the expansion of Palestinian towns and neighborhoods.
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.
