The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) notified eight Palestinian-owned homes with demolition in Al-Dirat and Irfaiya villages in Masafer Yatta to the south of al-Khalil on Sunday evening.
Local activist Fuad Al-Amour affirmed that the Israeli forces stormed Al-Dirat village and notified four local houses with demolition including a house under construction.
Four other houses were notified with demolition in the nearby Irfaiya village Al-Amour added.
For the past 40 years Israeli occupation authorities have relentlessly attempted to appropriate the privately owned agricultural lands in Masafer Yatta through declaring those areas in the early 1980s as ‘restricted military zones’ designated as ‘Firing Zone 918’. Eight long-established Palestinian villages within Firing Zone 918 are under threat of forced evacuation.
In 1999 the majority of the residents of the 12 villages were served with eviction orders on the basis that their residency was illegal in a restricted military zone and the area being designated as an ‘open fire zone.’ Following the eviction orders in November 1999 approximately 700 residents were forcibly displaced as the IOF destroyed most of their homes and confiscated their lands.
