Palestinian children in Khirbat Yarze, where the IDF destroyed homes on Tuesday, December 10 2013 (Image: Attef Abu-Arub, B’Tselem)
The Middle East is experiencing one of the worst winter storms to hit the region in years. All almost all of the mountain ranges from Syria to Sinai are covered in snow and the coastal areas are seeing very large amounts of rainfall. State and local authorities throughout the region are working to bring homeless people into shelters and rescue those caught in the storm.
Yet on Tuesday, just as the storm was approaching, the Israeli army’s Civil Administration in the West Bank destroyed tents and shacks belonging to Palestinian families in the northern part of the Jordan Valley, leaving some 40 people – including at least 18 children – homeless.
The army has denied building permits to = Palestinian farmers in the Jordan Valley for years, human rights organization B’Tselem reported. For some of the families at Khirbet Yarze, this is the second time their homes have been destroyed.
These photos were taken on Wednesday. Today (Friday) the Palestinian families were still there, living in tents provided by aid organizations. A person who visited them said that their most urgent concern was their livestock; farmers in the region have seen their animals die from the cold in the past few days and the army destroyed the shacks that protected the livestock in Khirbet Yarze.
A water tank demolished by the IDF in Khirbat Yarze (Image: Attef Abu-Arub, B’Tselem)
Destroyed Palestinain tents in Khirbet Yarze (Image: Attef Abu-Arub, B’Tselem)
Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war – the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the massive retaliatory Israeli attacks on Gaza. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed unleashed by these events has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Hamas’ murderous assault in southern Israel has devastated and shocked the country to its core. Israel’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza is wreaking destruction on the already besieged strip and killing a ballooning number of civilians. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to escalate their attacks on Palestinians.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 13 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, the entrenched occupation, and an increasingly normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
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