NABLUS, May 25, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli army on Monday ordered four families living in Wadi Ibzeeq, in al-Maleh local council in northern Jordan Valley, to leave their homes for six hours on Tuesday in order to conduct military training in the area, according to a local source.

Head of the village council of al-Maleh, Aref Daraghmeh, said an Israeli army force broke into the village and handed four families notices ordering them to leave their homes from 6:00 AM until 12:00 PM, to make way for military training.

According to Daraghmeh, more than 20 Palestinian families living in Wadi Ibzeeq were forced to leave their homes for more than 15 times since the beginning of this year.

Israel is planning to annex the Jordan Valley into a completely Israeli area, primarily in agriculture, targeting to ban territorial contiguity between a future Palestinian state and the rest of the Arab world.

In May 2014, a senior Israeli army officer reported that military training in live-fire zones in the West Bank “is used as a way of reducing the number of Palestinians living nearby, and serves as an important part of the campaign against Palestinian illegal construction.”

Col. Einav Shalev also described the Israeli army policy of confiscating humanitarian equipment destined for Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed as 'a punch in the right places'.

Meanwhile, World Bulletin news reported that, “The Israeli army usually conducts drills in the occupied West Bank, especially in the Jordan Valley, which is often accompanied by the forced displacement of dozens of local Palestinian families due to the proximity of their homes to the training sites.”

“Palestinians often worry about unexploded ordnance left behind by the Israeli army after the drills, which have led to the death of many Palestinians, including children, over the past years,” it said.

M.N./T.R.