TUBAS: Israel’s army has demolished the homes of nearly 80 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, officials and witnesses said Wednesday, in a rare operation targeting an entire community at once.
Late Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers razed the village — including tents, sheds, portable toilets and solar panels — near Tubas in the Jordan Valley, according to an AFP photographer at the scene, who found dozens of people left homeless.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused Israeli troops of having “completely demolished the village of Homsa al-Baqia, leaving around 80 people homeless”.
The branch of Israel’s army responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, COGAT, said it had destroyed structures “built illegally in a firing zone (military training area) in the Jordan Valley”.
The Jordan Valley falls within the West Bank’s “Area C” that is fully controlled by Israel’s army, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day war.
Under Israeli military law, Palestinians cannot build structures in the area without permits, which are typically refused, and demolitions are common.
Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israel in a statement of “deliberately creating a Kafkaesque reality that leaves Palestinians almost no way to build legally”.
In a separate message to AFP, it said the late-night operation in Homsa al-Baqia was unusual given that so many homes were targeted at the same time. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
