Description

TUBAS, January 1, 2015 (WAFA) – The Israeli authorities Thursday demolished residential Bedouin-oriented structures in Kherbet Um al-Jamal, a small village near Tubas in the central Jordan Valley, according to local sources.

Head of al-Maleh village council, Aref Daraghmeh, said Israeli soldiers and bulldozers arrived in the area and demolished around 25 residential structures, most made of tinplates, and animal bars.

Daraghmeh said the demolition left around five Palestinian families homeless.

Israeli army and police have repeatedly vandalized Palestinian residencies in the Jordan valley under the pretext of construction without permission.

The Jordan Valley is part of Area C of the West Bank, under complete Israeli control, where Israel rarely issues construction permits for Palestinians, prompting them to embark on construction without a permit.

Israel has heavily invested in transferring the Jordan Valley into a completely Israeli area, primarily in agriculture, targeting to ban territorial contiguity between a future Palestinian state and the rest of the Arab world.

To this end, tens of settlements and agricultural outposts have been established by Israel in the Valley, which makes up about one-third of the total area of the occupied West Bank.

Significantly contributing to the Israeli agriculture, the Jordan Valley is nonetheless part of the West Bank occupied since 1967, which the international community does not recognize as an Israeli territory.

M.N/M.H