The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Israel has displaced 13 Palestinian families, including 84 individuals, including 44 children, from Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, since the beginning of July 2023.
The United Nations Office explained in a report that the increasing restrictions imposed by Israeli forces on the movement of families in Masafer Yatta are the main reason behind their displacement.
Masafer Yatta, includes 13 population centers, which until recently housed 215 families, including 1,150 people. These communities are located within an area of 18 percent of the West Bank’s territory, which the Israeli occupation authorities declared to be “firing zones” and designated them for conducting military training. The people represent About 7 percent of its population has been displaced from their communities during the past three months.
OCHA stated in its report that over the years, and increasingly since May 2022, the occupation authorities have imposed movement restrictions, seized property, demolished homes, and conducted military training in Masafer Yatta. Together, these practices have contributed to creating a coercive environment that pushed citizens To immigration.
According to the report, the restrictions imposed on movement have increased in severity over the past three months, and it indicated that the occupation forces, which operate from a recently established military base, are carrying out patrol operations in the area more frequently and imposing more restrictions on the movement of citizens and their ability to access markets and basic services. Transporting fodder and other supplies for the livestock on which families depend. These forces also seized vehicles used by residents.
Two schools in the region reported that 24 students dropped out this year, including students whose families were deported in light of this coercive environment and others who feared the unsafe journey to their schools.
“In one incident, in September, Israeli forces stopped teachers on their way to their school and threatened to confiscate their vehicle if they took it again,” OCHA said.
Since March 2023, one of the population centers in Masafer Yatta, Khirbet “Bir al-Ad,” has been empty of its citizens after the last two families there were displaced.
Members of these two families pointed to the escalation of settler violence as the main reason that forced them to leave. This community has become one of four Palestinian population centers that have been completely empty in the West Bank since 2022.
And still is
OCHA explained that the Israeli occupation authorities are obstructing the efforts of humanitarian organizations and donors, which provide aid to the population centers in Masafer Yatta, by issuing demolition or “stop work” orders, seizing vehicles and equipment, and imposing physical restrictions on access to land and the entry of workers. In the humanitarian field.
She noted that one of the projects launched in May 2023 to provide emergency shelter was forced to stop its work after the Israeli authorities seized its rehabilitation materials.
According to OCHA, the forcible transfer of civilians from or within the Occupied Palestinian Territory is prohibited under international humanitarian law, and the United Nations has called on the Israeli authorities to stop all coercive measures, including restrictions on movement, planned evictions and demolitions, and military training in residential areas.
Source: Maan News Agency