Israeli human rights group B’tselem has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan to urgently intervene to stop Israel from evicting Palestinians from their homes and land in Masafer Yatta, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Israeli authorities are planning the eviction of some 1,000 Palestinian inhabitants of Masafer Yatta – a rural area located south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank – in order to create a military firing zone for Israeli occupation forces.
Eight villages, including four schools, clinics, and hundreds of other structures in the area are slated for demolition.
Palestine Chronicle: The Ethnic Cleansing of Masafer Yatta: Israel's New Annexation Strategy in Palestine.https://t.co/QY5Vtb6WeC
via @GoogleNews
— Seb Alam BDS 🇵🇸🇨🇮 (@SebPalac) June 1, 2022
Israel has been trying to drive these communities out for decades but has recently escalated its actions – in scope, severity, and frequency – following the May 2022 ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court.
The ruling, which contravened international law provisions and basic moral principles, reached the conclusion that the residents have no right to live on the land and there is no legal impediment to expelling them.
“Israel has made the residents’ lives a nightmare: they suffer daily threats by soldiers and settlers to their bodies and property, as well as noise and pollution hazards, routine damage to infrastructure, incessant invasion of their privacy and constant uncertainty over their future,” said B’Tselem in a statement.
“Israel is also working to cut these small communities off from their surroundings, with the military placing roadblocks, confiscating cars and hindering activists, journalists and diplomats from accessing the area,” the statement added.
WATCH: Palestinian Child Faints from Heatstroke while Detained by Israeli Soldiers in Masafer Yatta – Palestine Chronicle https://t.co/x6RRPDoa1a
— it is #Palestine, nothing else (@JamalKhanfer) September 6, 2022
The rights group attached to the letter an addendum detailing dozens of incidents in the area since June 2022, which illustrate the violent, day-to-day, reality Israel is imposing on these communities.
“We request your urgent intervention in this case in order to allow these communities to live with dignity, basic security and certainty about their future,” B’Tselem’s Executive Director Hagai El-Ad said, adding:
“When Israel sought to expel the Palestinian community of Khan al-Ahmar (located east of Jerusalem), intervention by the Office of the Prosecutor (October 2018) stopped Israel”.
(WAFA, PC, SOCIAL)
