Israel demolishes Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, displaces 30

The Israeli occupation forces today demolished four Palestinian homes, a tent and two other facilities in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank.

Local sources reported that occupation forces stormed the Um Al-Khair Bedouin community in Masafer Yatta, and bulldozed four homes, a tent and two caravans owned by Yasser Al-Hathalin and his sons Adi, Anis and Ali. Thirty Palestinians were displaced as a result of the occupation’s actions.

The occupation also destroyed water networks, tanks and solar energy units.

This comes two months after Israeli forces demolished a home and a tent owned by the Al-Hathalin family, as part of a large-scale demolition operation that targeted 11 homes and residences and a number of tents and facilities in the Um Al-Khair community.

Israel has recently escalated demolition operations in Masafer Yatta significantly, as part of efforts to displace residents from those areas to make way for the expansion of illegal settlements.”Masafer Yatta is a strategic region for settlers, as it allows them to carve up Palestinian territory from the south and connect with settlers in the Jordan Valley,” Jamal Juma’, director of Stop the Wall, a Palestinian organisation that documents the construction of Israel’s illegal Separation Wall and settlements, has previously explained.

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