Thread by @amnestyusa

How do home demolitions devastate communities and families? Khirbet Humsa is a Palestinian village in Area C of the West Bank, home to approximately 177 people. 🧵 amnestyusa.org/endapartheid

On 3 November 2020, Israeli forces demolished or confiscated 29 residential and livelihood structures, displacing 73 people, including 41 children. It was the largest forced displacement incident recorded in recent years.

The first tent confiscated was the home of Nitham Abu Kbash, a herder and father of three. His residential structure was confiscated a further five times in February 2021. Nitham told Amnesty International:

“Having lived my whole life in [Khirbet] Humsa, I have never seen it like this before. The army is trying every single way to get rid of us. God knows how we are still here.

“Never did we have to deal with what we went through [in November] last year, where every few days they would come and demolish our homes. I know they are trying to use Humsa as an example, because if they succeed in displacing us it can be a model for them to use elsewhere.

“I know the Israelis are choosing to do their demolition campaigns during the winter, during the hardest part of the year because we are most vulnerable. They know how hard it is to survive during the winters in the Jordan Valley.

“They probably never thought we would remain resilient – that we would stay.”

Between November 2020 and July 2021, Israeli authorities demolished or confiscated at least 210 residential and livelihood structures, displacing at least 392 residents, including 227 children. Five out of six of these demolitions took place during February 2021.

Nitham Abu Kbash described the psychological impact of these demolitions on his children: “The main virus our community faces is the Israeli army, not Covid-19. My kids are always scared; we are all always scared.

“When the army comes in and your children are terrorized and crying and outside in the pouring rain, I promise you, there is no human being on this earth that is meant to be able to handle that. The only way to describe it is as a tragedy.

“And what are we supposed to do? We don’t have anywhere to go. Even when the international community, including the EU, came to Humsa for solidarity, the army came in and confiscated our tents in front of diplomats and EU representatives.

“At first we were happy that the EU came; we thought we would be safe, that they would be able to stop the demolitions. But we were wrong; no one can protect us.”

Nitham Abu Kbash said: “Because of the demolitions I have had some of my sheep die from the conditions outside when they confiscated the tent where they live. Other times we didn’t have water to give them after they confiscated our water tanks.

“What did my sheep do to deserve to die? My family survives off our livestock; it is our only means of living. I ask anyone with a conscience to pressure the Israelis to do one thing: to stop the demolitions and to allow us to live our life and to tend to our animals.

“We are not asking for much.”