Published by the Palestine Information Centre 1st January 2015

TUBAS, (PIC)– Israeli army forces demolished Thursday noon Um al-Jamal small Bedouin village to the east of Tubas in Northern Jordan Valley, witnesses reported. They said a big number of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the hamlet and razed all Bedouin homes leaving them homeless.

Mohammad Daraghmeh, a resident of the village, told the PIC reporter that the Israeli army bulldozers razed dozens of people’s stockyards and tents and asked them to leave the area before being announcing it a closed military zone in which they are prohibited to access.

The IOF had earlier served them notifications, on the second day of Eid Al-Adha, to evacuate their homes, Daraghmeh said, adding the inhabitants’ facilities were demolished a month ago and now the IOF came back and razed their houses and displaced its inhabitants. He noted that the inhabitants largely depend on rearing cattle. Another resident Ali al-Kaabneh, whose stockyard was demolished more than once, said he will not leave in spite of repeatedly ruining his stockyard.

For his part, Aref Daraghmeh, head of Wadi al-Maleh and Bedouin council, said in a press release on Thursday that more than 25 facilities housing Bedouin families were entirely razed. They consist of tents for people and others for cattle belonging to Bedouins living in the village for decades.

Um al-Jamal hamlet is located in Wadi al-Maleh specifically 12 kilometers east of Tubas city where people of al-Kaabneh clan, displaced in 1948 from Beersheba south of Palestine, currently live. They rear cattle as the sole income source and live under primitive conditions.