Israeli forces today notified Palestinian landowners in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, of their intention to uproot 100 tree saplings from their land, according to a local activist.
Ratib al-Jbur said that Israeli forces stormed Khallet Ad-Dabi‘, one of the 19 hamlets making up Masafer Yatta, and handed farmers from the Dababseh family orders, notifying them that the 100 fruit tree saplings they have planted at the site of the local school, demolished two years ago, would be uprooted.
In May 2022, Israel’s top court gave the army the green light to forcibly expel some 1,300 Palestinians living in twelve villages or hamlets making up the Masafer Yatta area, which relies heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood, marking one of the largest expulsions carried out by the State of Israel in recent decades.
Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living – livestock.
It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since 1980s and accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.
Israeli violations against the area include demolition of animal barns, homes and residential structures. Issuance of construction permits by Israel to local Palestinians in the area is non-existent.
The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.
Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.
Source: Palestine News & Information Agency