Israeli occupation forces today dismantled and seized animal sheds in the northern Jordan Valley, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Motaz Bisharat, an official in the Tubas governorate, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers raided the community of Al-Burj and dismantled the animal sheds owned by four Palestinian families before seizing them under the pretext of their presence in a nature reserve area.
Demolition and confiscation reported this morning in Hammamat al Maleh – Al Burj. https://t.co/hG9VUlAUXf pic.twitter.com/sGNjlfb0kq
— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) January 26, 2021
The Israeli military government often uses pretexts such as nature reserve or army training area to end the presence of Palestinian families in the Jordan Valley.
The Jordan Valley covers an area of about 1.6 million dunams (1,600 km2) and constitutes around 30 percent of the total occupied West Bank. According to a previous government report, the Valley includes about 280,000 dunams of arable land, 50,000 of which are still used by Palestinians and 27,000 by illegal Jewish settlers.
The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.
(Palestine Chronicle, WAFA, Social Media)
