HEBRON, Tuesday, July 21, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli military today demolished tin-sheet structures in Birin, one of the localities comprising Bani Naim town, east of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, said a local activist.

Coordinator of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Committees Rateb al-Jabour said Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer into the locality where it tore down two shacks, each has an area of 80 square meters, displacing two families, including children.

Jabour pointed out Israel was proceeding with demolitions in the locality to displace the villagers and grab their land to expand the nearby colonial settlement of Bani Haiver although the villagers have title deeds.

According to the Land Research Center, Israel has frequently issued military stop-construction and demolition orders against various residential and agricultural structures and dismantled barns in the locality, citing the lack of rarely-issued construction permits as a pretext.

In December 2017, Israel delivered stop-construction orders to the locality’s sole clinic and building intended to serve as a primary school for the community’s 60 children

In June 2019, as showed in a PLO’s Negotiations Affairs Department’s report, Israel seized 4,800 dunums of land from several localities, including Birin, for the expansion of Bani Haiver.

Located to the southwest of Bani Naim, Birin has a population of 160 and is flanked by Bani Haiver colonial settlement from the east and the settler-only bypass Road No. 60 from the west. Its residents were originally expelled from the Naqab in southern Israel and now depend on agriculture and livestock as their main source of livelihood.

K.F./M.K.