RAMALLAH, February 7, 2017 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Tuesday demolished residential tents and barns in the northern Jordan Valley, said a municipal source and a settlement monitor.

According to Head of Kardala Local Council Ghassan Fuqaha, Israeli forces escorting a military bulldozer raided Kardala village, east of Tubas, and demolished a number of residential tents and livestock barns.

The tents and barns reportedly occupied an area of 180 square meters and belonged to Bassam Radwan. The structures were demolished for being located within a Israeli military zone.

Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers demolished residential tents and animal barns in Khirbet al-Ras al-Ahmar, southeast of Tubas.

Aref Daraghmeh, who monitors settlement construction in the Jordan Valley, said Israeli forces broke into Khirbet al-Ras al-Ahmar and demolished two residential tents and six animal barns owned by Ali Bani-Odeh.

Israeli forces regularly serve local Palestinian communities orders to evacuate their homes and farmland to make way for military drills and destroy both properties and infrastructure.

Many local Palestinians see military drills in Israeli designated firing zones as well as repeated home demolitions as an Israeli strategy to forcibly displace them and expand illegal settlements.

Communities in the Jordan Valley, such as Khirber al-Ras al-Ahmar, have been inhabited by Palestinians long time before the Israeli occupation in 1967.

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.

To this end, tens of settlements and agricultural outposts have been established by Israel in the Valley, which makes up about one-third of the total area of the occupied West Bank.

K.F/M.H