Israeli forces carried out a large-scale demolition of Palestinian structures in Khirbet Ibziq village, near Tubas, on Tuesday, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The head of the Ibziq village council, Abdel-Majid Khdeirat, told WAFA that a sizable Israeli military force stormed the village in the afternoon hours and declared it a closed military zone, preventing entry and exit from it, before starting large-scale demolitions.
Why would @IDF destroy on mass and forcibly transfer the people of #Ibziq? To allow for the appropriation of a fertile tract of land in the #JordanValley and the establishment of a new settlement. Why now? @IsraelMFA advised that #UNSC is out for #Christams and the new year. pic.twitter.com/UxMXTgUbbm
— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) December 28, 2021
He added that as part of the demolitions, Israeli bulldozers razed some 40 structures, including tents and residential and agricultural facilities, belonging to ten families.
The Jordan valley, which is a fertile strip of land running west along the Jordan River, is home to about 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30% of the West Bank.
#Palestine #IsraeliApartheid #IsraeliWarCrimes
IOF forces Palestinian families in Khirbet Ibziq to leave their homes for the 5th time this month, leaving them with no shelter in the middle of the winter.
The practice is part of ongoing #EthnicCleansing.https://t.co/y2L2CySQaU https://t.co/chsVEwCwv1— Joseph Zernik 🍀 🟣 (@Joseph_Zernik) December 27, 2021
Since 1967, when the Israeli army occupied the West Bank, Israel has transferred at least 11,000 of its Jewish citizens to the Jordan Valley. Some of the settlements in which they live were built almost entirely on private Palestinian land.
The Israel military has also designated about 46 percent of the Jordan Valley as a closed military zone since the beginning of the occupation in June 1967, and has been utilizing the pretext of military drills to forcefully displace Palestinian families living there as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing and stifling Palestinian development in the area.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
