New demolitions in Khirbet Yerza
Khirbet Yerza is a small village with few dozens of inhabitants. It used to count hundreds of inhabitants before the 1967 occupation as its underground is full of water and thus very fertile.
Today Khirbet Yerza is an area considered by Israel as a military training area. It is also very isolated. Only one dirt road goes there, and it is very hard to access with a normal car.
Vew from Khirbet Yerza, South : In the background Ro’i settlement and the earth wall preventing Palestinian movements
View from Khirbet Yerza, North : Tayyassir checkpoint
Three months ago, the army destroyed many houses and even the mosque.
Last thursday, 17.02.2011, around 20 soldiers and 2 bulldozers came to destroyed Yerza again.
Soldiers told a 70 year-old woman that she has to move to Tubas. 15 years ago the army told her to go to Khirbet Yerza when she was living in Al Maleh. “where can I put my cows in Tubas ?! They will have to shot us here if they want us to leave !”
They destroyed the ground of the mosque that was demolished 3 months ago. People had cleaned the area and put carpets on the ground to pray at the same place. But the army destroyed even this.
14 structures were demolished, among them tents that were given by the Red Cross three months ago.
Some families had tooken off the roofs of their barracks before the army arrived in order to save some materials. But soldiers saw some hidden metal sheets and drove over it in order to destroy it
A Palestinian journalist was there during the demolitions and took pictures of the scene. The soldiers beat him and confiscated his camera.
Most of the families living in Khirbet Yerza own the land and have lived in this area for more than 100 years.
All the families of the area received a new demolition order before the army left the place .
