Israel kicks out Palestinian children outside their houses in cold weather in the Jordan Valley
The Israeli occupation forces plan to expel the residents of Khirbet Humsah Al-Foqa town and surrounding towns in the Jordan Valley [Al-Aghwar area] with the aim of confiscating 60.000 dunums of Palestinians-owned lands in order to expand settlements in the region and to set up new ones.
Abdo Al-Rahman Abo Al-Kabbash is a Palestinian resident in Khirbet Humsah Al-Foqa town in the Valley said: ” The Israeli occupation forces have demolished my house 4 times and have displaced me alongside 10 other families from the town. They arrested us and beat us.. we will remain steadfast and we will resist the settlement plot.. we will never leave our lands.. The occupation will eventually end.”
Another resident in the town, Sohil Awawdeh, said that the Israeli occupation demolished his house and the houses of three members of his family. “The occupation forces kicked our children and left them outside their houses despite cold temperatures and prevented them from taking their dolls and school books and clothes.. They razed our houses and tents, but we will not move from here.”
The Israeli occupation authorities seek to displace 70.000 Palestinians from the towns of the Valley, according to Chairman of the Commission of Resisting Wall and Settlement, Walid Assaf.
Assaf added that the Israeli occupation authorities built 20 new settlement units, uprooted 12.000 trees and destroyed 879 Palestinian establishments last year.
Last Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh decried Israel’s demolition of shelters and animal sheds as well as the seizure of tents that belong to the community as an “organized state terrorism which involves ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population”.
He called on the international community to immediately intervene, condemn this operation, and provide protection to the Palestinians in the villages, towns, and hamlets facing large scale demolition of their homes and confiscation of their lands.
The valley, which Israel has occupied since the 1967, comprises approximately a quarter of the West Bank and lies hundreds of feet below sea level.
The annexation of the Valley would block Palestinians from their farmlands, prevent them from getting to their jobs in Israeli settlements and choke off their villages behind walls, fences and checkpoints.
Basma Qaddour