On 10 December 2013 the Israeli Occupation Forces has demolished houses and animals structures in several communities located in Area C in the Jordan Valley: Fasayil, Al Jiftlik and Yarza.

At 6:00 am, four military jeeps, two bulldozers and some cars from the Israeli Civil Military Administration came into Fasayil community. They demolished two structures for animals, one made of concrete and the other of iron.

After that, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) drove to Jiftlik village where they destroyed the Mashud family’s house. Only ten days ago this family has suffered the demolition of their home. After this first demolition, Mashud and his wife built two tents for their six children to have a place where to live. Today, the Occupation Forces destroyed everything in their land once again: the two tents, two animal shelters and the toilet.

A team of Jordan Valley Solidarity (JVS) volunteers followed the IOF convoy to report the next demolition. It took place in Yarza community, in the north of the Jordan Valley. The soldiers closed the road and prevent the JVS team of entering in the area, but we witnessed the demolition from the road. In just ten minutes the IOF demolished three houses and three animal shelters on the land of Ismail Mahmud’s family, leaving 25 members of this family homeless.

Six months ago Ismail Mahmud received a demolition order for his house and the IOF came and demolished his house. This time he didn’t receive a demolition order or any other legal papers warning him of the demolition, the IOF just arrived in the village and destroyed his house and animal shelter.

The JVS team entered the village to take the testimony of the family when the Israeli Occupation Forces had gone. Ismail told us that they could have saved the canvas from the tent and taken it away before the demolition started, but a soldier who saw it came and cut the canvas with a knife. By this time it had already been removed from the frame of the home. Ismail asked to the soldier why he cut the canvas, but he didn’t receive an answer. He said that the soldiers, after the demolition of the animal’s structures, threw soil over them, mixing the soil with the animal food. This made the animal food unusable, and prevented the family from saving it for the animals.

All the villages located in Area C are under full military control of Israel since the Oslo Agreements in 1993. With the pretext of military needs or security reasons, the Israeli Authority prevents Palestinians communities in this area of building any kind of constructions or infrastructure in spite of those communities being here before the occupation started in 1967. Systematically, Israel deny building permits to the Palestinians to build houses, schools, health clinics or water-electricity infrastructures, and demolish buildings declared illegal because they weren’t authorize by Israel. At the same time, Israel has been confiscating Palestinian land to build and extend Jewish Israeli settlements in Area C in the valley.