Images
Several members of the extended al Abu al-Kabash family in the field they removed to early in the morning. Photo by ‘Aref Daraghmeh, B’Tselem, 24 April 2018
On Sunday, 22 April 2018, Civil Administration officials came to the Palestinian community of Khirbet Humsah in the northern Jordan Valley. The settlement of Beka’ot was built near this community. The officials served five families of the extended Abu al-Kabash family with evacuation orders, allegedly for the purpose of military training due to take place in the area. The families were told to vacate their homes on three dates: 24 April, 1 May and 8 May 2018, from 6:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. each time. The five families have 29 members in total. Nineteen are minors, including a month-old infant and a child with Down syndrome. Yesterday, 24 April 2018, soldiers and Civil Administration officials arrived at the community at 6:00 A.M. and ordered the five families to leave. The adults took their sheep - herds numbering scores of animals - and walked to an open area some 10km away from their homes, near the village of al-Hadidiya. The children were taken by car to a different site where they waited until they could return home. The families were forced to leave behind, untended, two newborn lambs as they were not yet able to go out to pasture.
Soldiers, armored vehicles and tanks have been training in several locations near Palestinian communities in the northern Jordan Valley almost every day since 5 March 2018. Daily military exercises are a living example of Israel’s policy in the Jordan Valley and in Area C overall, designed to create impossible living conditions that will drive residents of Palestinian communities to leave their homes, ostensibly by choice.