IOF force Humsa families to leave their homes for military training
On 15th December, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) visited six families from the community of Humsa. They announced that they would be carrying out a military exercise and that they must vacate their homes. Three days later, at 6am on 18th December, the army arrived and told the families to leave, forcing them to walk six kilometers from their homes.
They remained sitting on the side of the road with their young children, until two o’clock in the afternoon when the IOF had said it would be safe for them to return.
In their absence, the IOF were firing missiles from land near Abel al Ajaaj camp in Al Jiftlik village, situated in the centre of the Jordan valley, into the Humsa area.
This is the third time this month that these families have had to leave their homes and wait kilometers away, while the IOF carries out military exercises using a variety of heavy weaponry. The IOF insist on using the Jordan valley as a strategic training ground although they have full access to the Naqab desert for precisely these activities. However, 57% of the Jordan Valley is designated as closed military areas which Palestinians can no longer access. Families forced to move today in Humsa, fear that their lands will also be turned into a closed military zone. They never know at what point the army will announce that they will be using their land to fire missiles, drive their tanks and use firearms.
In Humsa the community were all forced to leave, but their livestock remained. If they had been fired on during the military training they could have been injured or killed, and it would be the end to the family’s livelihood. This is a further worry for the community as these military exercises could potentially destroy their homes and their entire income in the space of an afternoon.
These military operations, outside of the closed military zones, are attempts by the IOF to move the Palestinian communities out of the Jordan valley, as it becomes increasingly difficult to carry out daily activities without intervention or harassment by the army.
