Israel evicts more West Bank families

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=129529§ionid=351020202



The Israeli army is forcing more Palestinian families out of their homes in the West Bank Tubas area, where Tel Aviv has set up a "closed military zone."

Israeli forces on Sunday delivered 10-day eviction orders to five Palestinian families in two villages in the Jordan Valley, Ma'an news agency reported on Monday.

The orders came days after Israeli settlers put up an illegal outpost on the families' lands and took over the only water well in the area.

Locals say patrols of Israeli forces were sighted in the villages since Sunday, "breaking into people's homes around the clock" as one resident described, and delivering notices that families must evacuate because the area is a "closed military zone."

The eviction will render 50 people homeless, according to Abdallah Bisharat, a town council member from the village of Atuf.

Bisharat warned the move would be "devastating" for the Palestinian families in question, who live off their lands.

The five Palestinian families who received eviction orders said they were terrified by the recent establishment of an Israeli settler outpost on their lands, saying the settlers are armed and fully protected by the Israeli military.

Israeli military forces have reportedly invaded the village on a number of occasions over the past week, and broken into Palestinian homes.

The forces told the Palestinian families to get water from nearby villages and collect it in tanks when they complained the settlers had prevented the local indigenous Palestinian population from accessing the water well.

Israel plans to take over the fertile Jordan Valley, in the eastern part of the West Bank, and annex it to what it hopes to build as a "state of Israel."