WEST BANK, (PIC)
With the escalation of aggression and the ongoing massacres being perpetrated by Israel in the Gaza Strip, part of a genocide, Israeli occupation forces are intensifying their policy of demolishing homes and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank. This reflects a unified Israeli approach to deepening the ethnic cleansing project across Palestinian geography.
This alarming escalation coincides with a rapid increase in settlement activity and the imposition of gradual annexation policies in the West Bank. Experts assert that what is happening on Palestinian land cannot be reduced to a reaction to resistance operations on October 7, or the presence of Israeli prisoners, but is an extension of an occupation policy based on denying Palestinian existence by all possible means.
Numbers speak: Dozens of homes and thousands displaced
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported a rise in demolition and displacement operations, as well as the destruction of Palestinian properties and facilities, including those that have existed for decades. This is part of the occupation authorities’ efforts to impose new demographic realities through a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.
During the first 10 days of April 2024, the human rights center documented 15 demolition operations carried out by the occupation army in various governorates of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, affecting 24 homes and 58 facilities and tents, leading to the displacement of hundreds of citizens, mostly women and children.
In Al-Khalil, occupation forces demolished on April 9 two homes belonging to citizens Ahmad and Fathi Ismail Abu Qai’an in the town of Samu, ignoring legal objections filed by the owners. One of the homes housed 10 individuals, including 8 children.
Ahmad Abu Qai’an said, “I built the house in 2019 with my brother, and the construction cost us over one million shekels. Suddenly, bulldozers arrived without prior warning and demolished everything.”
In Jerusalem, the occupation forced citizen Alaa Abdul Aliyan to self-demolish an extension of his home and the foundation of a building under construction, under the threat of hefty fines from the occupation municipality. “I tried to license the extension I built for my family since 2010, but they refused and imposed a 70,000 shekel fine, and then they forced me to demolish it myself,” Aliyan said.
In Salfit, the occupation army demolished two inhabited homes in the town of Broqin belonging to citizens Muhammad Sabra and Alaa Mahmoud, claiming they were built in an area classified as (C), one of the means used by Israel to empty these areas of Palestinians. “I couldn’t take anything out of the house; even my sheep scattered in the fields,” Sabra added.
In Ramallah, occupation forces demolished the Al-Naimah wedding hall in Beit Luqia, measuring 500 square meters, and an agricultural room in Beit Nuba, under the pretext of building near the apartheid wall. In Nablus, the occupation army demolished two homes, both belonging to families with children.
The northern Jordan Valley was not spared from targeting, as occupation forces demolished 45 tents and shacks in the Ras Al-Ahmar gathering, displacing five families from the Abu Aram family and destroying their livestock and contents.
In Bethlehem, the occupation army displaced seven citizens after demolishing two homes in Wadi Fukin village, one of which belonged to citizen Asem Mansara, who said, “I was surprised to see bulldozers surrounding the house at dawn and starting the demolition without any chance to remove the furniture.”
Collective punishment methodology: Demolition as a political and settlement tool
The demolition operations show that they are not merely building violations as Israel claims, but tools within a comprehensive project to empty the land of its Palestinian inhabitants, especially in areas classified as (C), which make up more than 60% of the West Bank’s area and are under complete Israeli control.
Demolitions are carried out either under the pretext of the absence of permits, as part of what is called “punitive measures,” or on grounds of “proximity to settlements or the wall,” all of which are justifications based on a racist legal system that denies Palestinians the bare minimum of rights for building and habitation.
Illegal occupation and the complicity of the international community
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights emphasizes that demolition and forced displacement operations constitute war crimes under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the unjust destruction of property and rejects collective punishment.
The center reminds that the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in July 2024 affirming the illegality of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, calling for Israel to immediately end its colonial presence.
No separation between Gaza and the West Bank
What is happening in the West Bank through systematic ethnic cleansing via illegal tools, self-demolition, and forced displacement complements the war being waged by Israel against the Gaza Strip. It is a single colonial policy that takes various forms but moves in one direction: uprooting Palestinians from their land.
As the international community continues to fail to seriously address these policies and hold the occupation accountable in international courts, Palestinians insist on confronting this racist, replacement project, which is no longer ashamed to reveal its true intentions.
