West Bank: the occupation besieges 30 families and settlers burn houses in Tubas

The Israeli occupation army and groups of settlers yesterday, Tuesday, imposed a tight siege on a Palestinian community east of the city of Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank, inhabited by about 30 families.

“The Israeli occupation army and groups of settlers yesterday, Tuesday, imposed a tight siege on a Palestinian community east of the city of Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank, inhabited by about 30 families”

Al-Jazeera Net

Mutaz Bisharat, the official in charge of the Jordan Valley file in Tubas governorate, said that the occupation forces and settlers closed the roads and entrances leading to the eastern side of the village of ‘Atouf’, fully besieging 30 families whose members number more than 180 people.

Al-Jazeera Net

Bisharat added that the siege affected more than 12,000 head of livestock that were left without water, along with thousands of dunams of agricultural land being eradicated before the eyes of their isolated owners inside the area.

In Khirbet Yerza east of Tubas, settlers set fire to residential and agricultural structures on Tuesday evening after owners had left them under pressure from escalating attacks in recent days.

Bisharat said residents left behind 22 structures, including houses, residential tents, barracks and mobile health units, and that the final extent of the damage caused by the burning is not yet clear.

Al-Jazeera Net

Eleven families had begun evacuating their homes in the village on Sunday before their displacement was completed on Tuesday, according to the Al-Baydar rights organization, which confirmed that groups of settlers 'succeeded in imposing the forced departure of Palestinian families from Khirbet Yerza'.

Bisharat called for urgent action, warning of 'a new Nakba'.

The Al-Baydar rights organization warned of the actual implementation of a policy of 'ethnic cleansing aimed at emptying the Jordan Valley and the eastern slopes of their original inhabitants in favor of settlement expansion'.

“The Israeli occupation army and groups of settlers yesterday, Tuesday, imposed a tight siege on a Palestinian community east of the city of Tubas, in the northern occupied West Bank, inhabited by about 30 families”

Al-Jazeera Net

Since the outbreak of the war on the Gaza Strip on October 8, 2023, settlers have escalated their attacks in the West Bank, resulting in the killing of 42 Palestinians, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Attacks by the army and settlers more broadly have also led to the deaths of 1,125 Palestinians and the injury of about 11,700, in addition to the arrest of about 22,000, according to official Palestinian data.

The article notes that the attacks focus not only on killings and arrests but also on the destruction of homes and structures, the displacement of residents and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied territory.

The final extent of the damage in Khirbet Yerza remains unclear, and local officials and rights groups are calling for urgent action in response to the reported sieges, burnings and forced departures.

Al-Jazeera Net