A woman in al-Hadidya praying in front of the wreckage that was her house. Picture credit: Keren Manor/ActiveStills.org

At six AM this morning, two army bulldozers, accompanied by five jeeps and two Civil Administration cars, arrived at the tent dwellings of al-Hadidye tribe in the Jordan Valley with ill intentions. The tent dwellings of residents here and in the surrounding area have been demolished time and again by the Israeli army. The underlying objective of these tireless efforts is the displacement of Palestinian inhabitants of the area in order to maintain Israeli control over it.

Residents were ordered to keep away from their dwellings and forbidden to collect their personal belongings as machines climbed over their homes. In total, over 20 structures (including animal shelters and stone ovens) were demolished, four families of the tribe affected.

A lawyer appointed by the residents to speak on their behalf before the Israeli courts was inside a courtroom at the time, attempting to prevent the demolitions. Over the phone he asked to speak to the commanders of the operation to dissuade them through legal discourse. But the army men refused to speak to him and threatened the phone bearer with violence.

Then all vehicles turned to Hirbet Yaghza, another locality, where they proceeded to destroy seven more structures and their immobile contents.

Yesterday three more demolition orders were handed to home owners in the village of al-Jifthlik also in the Valley.

In the community of al-Fassayel where several days ago 18 homes belonging to 11 families were demolished, the people are still struggling to make do with what was left. Make-shift tents and simple trees provide as roofs. Clothing, kitchen utensils, water tanks and electricity infrastructure are all buried under the ruins. Two tents, which have been supplied by the Red Cross, hardly meet the needs of the folk, leaving them to wonder – if area C is so important, why isn’t anyone helping out?