Israel razes Palestinian homes in Jordan Valley

Israeli army bulldozers on Thursday demolished three Palestinian homes and two barns in the Jordan Valley region of the West Bank on claims that the structures had been built illegally, eyewitnesses have said.

Israeli forces raided Aqaba village in the Jordan Valley at dawn on Thursdayand razed the brick buildings to the ground, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency.

Israeli forces, they added, had continued to block access to the site.

Aqaba falls within “Area C,” which covers nearly two thirds of the West Bank and remains under Israel’s full civil and security control, as laid down in the 1995 Oslo II Accord between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Israel prohibits construction of cement and/or iron structures in the strategic Jordan Valley region, an agriculturally-rich area running along the Jordanian border.

As a result, over 10,000 Palestinian inhabitants of the Jordan Valley are forced to live in makeshift tent-houses and tin shacks.

Israel sees the strategic valley as an economic and security buffer zone for Jewish settlements and wants to keep the region under its control in any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Palestinians, for their part, want the Jordan Valley as part of a future state of Palestine.