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Israel confiscates health clinic from Palestinian village

December 20, 2016 at 12:04 pm

Israeli occupation authorities recently confiscated a trailer being used as a health clinic by a small Palestinian village in the southern West Bank.

According to the report in Haaretz, Israeli soldiers came to Al-Markaz last week and took the trailer, which had been brought to the community only ten days earlier.

Palestinians now fear that the Israeli occupation authorities will confiscate a further two trailers serving as clinics in two adjacent villages, Safai and Majaz.

The three villages are among 12 such communities whose existence pre-dates the beginning of Israeli military rule in 1967, in an area designated by Israel as “Firing Zone 918”.

Israel is “demanding that over 1,000 residents in eight of the villages be permanently evicted”, and the state “forbids connecting them to the water supply or electricity grid as well as any construction, including for structures for public needs, like clinics or schools.”

After the trailer was confiscated, a local Palestinian official filed a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court, asking the court to compel the Israeli military “not to dismantle and confiscate any trailers serving as clinics until the end of court proceedings.”

On Sunday, the Supreme Court “ordered the state to respond to the petition within a week, but refused the request to issue a restraining order against dismantling and confiscating the clinics.”

Next month, the Supreme Court will “hold hearings regarding the village residents’ petition to prevent the state from evicting them from their homes to allow the military to hold firing exercises in the areas.”