Israel military forces issued demolition notices to a number of Palestinian landowners in Yatta village, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. The pretext for the demolition order was that the homes and water wells were ‘constructed without licenses’ — despite the fact that Israeli military authorities have refused to issue licenses for Palestinian landowners since they began their military occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
According to the Coordinator of the Protection and Steadfastness Committee of Hebron, Fuad Al-Amour, the occupying Israeli military, which has ruled the Palestinians in the West Bank under martial law since 1967, issued demolition orders for six homes, two water wells and four agricultural sheds in the al-Jawaya community east of Yatta.
In addition to the claim that the buildings and wells ‘lack licenses’ from the Israeli military occupation, the military also noted on the demolition order that these properties must be destroyed because they are located too close to an Israeli-only bypass road and the Israeli-only settlement of Ma’on.
This settlement is constructed on illegally-seized Palestinian land, as is the bypass road.
The coordinator of the Popular and National Committees to Resist the Wall and Settlements, Ratib al-Jabour, told reporters from the Wafa News Agency that the homeowners whose homes are being threatened are: Adham Ahmad Al-Shawahin, Ahmed Muhammad Al-Shawahin, Muhammad Ali Hussein Al-Shawahin, Muhammad Ahmad Al-Shawahin, and Awad Al-Nawajaa.
The agricultural sheds and water wells belong to Musa Hassan al-Shawahin, Muhammad Husayn al-Shawahin, Hassan Muhammad al-Shawahin, and Abdul-Jamal al-Nawajah.
These demolition orders follow the recent demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes and water wells in the nearby Palestinian village of Masafer Yatta, forcing the Palestinian residents into homelessness. Those demolitions were carried out by the Israeli military using armored D-9 bulldozers supplied by the U.S. government, in order to push the Palestinian residents out of the area, to expand the Israeli colony of Ma’on.
All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law, but despite numerous United Nations resolutions condemning the colonial expansion of Israeli territory onto Palestinian land, no international body has stepped in to stop Israel from its continued and ongoing theft of Palestinian land.
