‘Israeli’ Occupation Leaves 41 Children Homeless After Razing Palestinian Village

By Staff, Agencies

Zionist forces in the occupied West Bank have razed a Palestinian village, leaving 73 people – including 41 children – homeless, in the largest forced displacement incident for years, the United Nations warned.

Excavators escorted by military vehicles were filmed approaching Khirbet Humsa and proceeding to flatten or smash up tents, shacks, animal shelters, toilets and solar panels.

“These are some of the most vulnerable communities in the West Bank,” said Yvonne Helle, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the ‘Israeli’-occupied Palestinian territory.

Three-quarters of the community lost their shelters during Tuesday’s attack, she said, making it the largest forced displacement incident in more than four years. However, by the number of destroyed structures, 76, the raid was the largest demolition in the past decade, she added.

On Wednesday, families from the village were seen rifling through their wrecked belongings in the wind, with some of the first rain of the year arriving the same day. The UN published a photo of a bed and a cot in the open desert.

The village is one of several Bedouin and sheepherding communities in the Jordan Valley area that is located within Zionist-declared army training “firing zones” where people there often face demolitions for a building without an alleged ‘permission’ from the occupying regime.

“Palestinians can almost never obtain such permits,” said Helle. “Demolitions are a key means of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their homes,” she said, accusing the Zionist entity of “grave breaches” of international law.

Nearly 700 structures have been demolished across the West Bank and occupied al-Quds in 2020 so far, she said, more than any year since 2016, leaving 869 Palestinians homeless.