The International Movement for Defense of Children - Palestine said today, Wednesday, that "thirty-eight children are out in the open, after the Israeli occupation forces demolished their homes in Khirbet Homs al-Fawqa in the northern Jordan Valley, making them a trace after an eye."
Al-Khirbet inhabits 11 families, including 72 people, including 38 children, the youngest of whom is 3 months old and the oldest is 17 years old. Their dwellings consist of tents and tin kiosks.
The global movement confirmed in a report, a copy of which was sent to Al-Quds.com, that the occupation authorities are trying, through continuous demolitions and the seizure of housing, to force the residents to leave the ruins and transfer them to another area near the Hamra military checkpoint in the central Jordan Valley, but the residents refuse to do so And they insist on staying on their land, so that the total number of times the occupation demolished the ruin reached 4 times within one week, the last of which was on the eighth of February.
The movement mentioned the testimonies of some children, as the child Amr said. K., 16 years old, in his testimony to Defense for Children International - Palestine, "Our homes were demolished before our eyes, and we were helpless. Women and children were crying without stopping."
He continued: "On November 3, 2020, six Israeli bulldozers arrived at Khirbet and destroyed residential tents and leveled them with the ground. In addition to tin pens, animal sheds, portable toilets, water tanks and solar panels."
According to the global movement, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described the demolition at the time as "the largest demolition in years."
In 1997, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted General Comment No. 7 on the Right to Adequate Housing: Forced Evictions, which urges states to strictly prevent - in all cases - from intentionally displacing a person, family or community following an operation Evictions, whether legal or illegal.
The movement said: However, the occupation authorities have worked increasingly to demolish Palestinian homes and displace Palestinian families this year. According to OCHA, the year 2020 witnessed the highest average rate of destruction in four years.
"My cousins ​​and I were distributing fodder to our sheep when a convoy of Israeli military vehicles, followed by six bulldozers, headed towards us. At first, I thought they wanted to evacuate us for the military exercises. I and other children were really scared because they were approaching," said child Amr.
The movement noted that the occupation gave families only 3 minutes to leave their homes and take their possessions and sheep. According to local residents, the occupation authorities did not inform them in advance of the demolitions.
"In just three minutes, we were able to get out only the most important things like mattresses, food, kitchen utensils, and what was left was left and destroyed under the rubble." Amr said.
Defense for Children International documented that the bulldozers of the Israeli occupation demolished Khirbet Hamsa al-Fawqa that day within four hours.
Amr told the global movement, "After the occupation forces left the area, we tried to remove what remained of our items under demolition, to fix what could be repaired."
According to the residents of Khirbet Homsa al-Fawqa, the occupation demolished the ruin for the first time in 2014, and rebuilt it by the people, so that the occupation demolished it again in November 2020, and then the demolitions followed whenever it was rebuilt.
The movement confirmed that Khirbet Homsa al-Fawqa is one of 38 Bedouin communities located within "firing zones" established by the occupation. Palestinian citizens of the northern Jordan Valley live in closed military zones and many illegal Israeli settlements. The occupation forces often use the Palestinian lands in the Jordan Valley for military training, often using live ammunition and improvised explosive devices, and forcing Palestinian families to leave their lands often by dismantling and destroying their homes.
It is noteworthy that the Defense for Children International movement documented during the year 2020 the demolition of 38 homes and residential facilities by the Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem (15 in the West Bank and 23 in Jerusalem), three of which were for "security reasons", while the demolition was carried out. The rest was under the pretext of lack of permission, and the maximum period the occupation gave to evacuation was 10 days and the least of it was 10 minutes, thus displacing 119 citizens, including 62 children.
