Israel’s army has demolished the homes of nearly 80 Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank, officials and witnesses said Wednesday, in a rare operation targeting an entire community at once.
Late Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers razed the village — including tents, sheds, portable toilets and solar panels — near Tubas in the Jordan Valley, according to an AFP photographer at the scene, who found dozens of people left homeless.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused Israeli troops of having “completely demolished the village of Homsa al-Baqia, leaving around 80 people homeless”.
The branch of Israel’s army responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, COGAT, said it had destroyed structures “built illegally in a firing zone (military training area) in the Jordan Valley”.
The Jordan Valley falls within the West Bank’s “Area C” that is fully controlled by Israel’s army, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six Day war.
Read more: Israeli army destroys Palestinian village in Jordan Valley
