Israeli army destroys Palestinian village in Jordan Valley

TUBAS AFP Nov4, 2020 - Israel’s army has demolished the homes of nearly 80 Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank, officials and witnesses said Wednesday, in a rare operation targeting an entire community at once.   

Late Tuesday, Israeli bulldozers razed the village --including tents, sheds, portable toilets and solar panels-- near Tubas in the Jordan Valley, according to an AFP photographer at the scene, who found dozens of people left homeless.   

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh accused Israeli troops of having “completely demolished the village of Homsa al-Baqia, leaving around 80 people homeless”.   

The Jordan Valley falls in the West Bank’s Area C that is fully controlled by Israel’s army, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967.   

According to Abdelghani Awada, left homeless by the operation, his family had lived in the area for generations and accused Israel of trying to “empty the Jordan Valley of its Palestinian population”.