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Israeli forces completely demolish Palestinian village in West Bank, rights group says
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Conflict & Security

Israeli forces completely demolish Palestinian village in West Bank, rights group says

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Israeli forces demolished homes and other structures in Khirbet at Taban in the southern Hebron hills, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.
  • The demolition displaced 12 families, about 70 people, including 28 children, the group said.
  • COGAT said the structures stood illegally inside a military firing zone, while B’Tselem described the action as part of a policy of ethnic cleansing.

By dawn, Khirbet at Taban had been reduced to rubble. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, said Israeli forces entered the Palestinian community in the southern Hebron hills overnight and demolished the entire village.

Images released by the group showed destroyed homes, animal pens, water cisterns and storage buildings. The structures had supported 12 families, around 70 people in total, including 28 children.

B’Tselem said Khirbet at Taban was the 66th Palestinian community to be completely displaced by Israel since October 2023, when the Gaza war began after a Hamas-led group of Palestinian militias crossed into Israel and killed more than 1,200 people. The organization said 18 other communities had been partially displaced during the same period.

Illegal structures that had been erected inside a firing zone

— COGAT spokespersonCOGAT explained why Israeli forces demolished structures in the West Bank community.

According to B’Tselem’s figures, about 4,931 Palestinians, including roughly 2,339 children and adolescents, have been forcibly moved from their homes in the West Bank since then. The organization characterized the displacement as part of an Israeli policy of “ethnic cleansing.”

COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for civil affairs in the occupied West Bank, told EFE that Wednesday’s demolitions targeted “illegal structures that had been erected inside a firing zone” used by the army. Its spokesperson said the operation followed the relevant authorities and procedures, while taking operational priorities into account. B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said Israel was erasing Palestinian communities at an accelerating pace and accused the world of doing nothing as Palestinians remained exposed to Israeli violence.

Israel continues erasing Palestinian communities at an accelerating pace as part of the ethnic cleansing it is carrying out in the West Bank. The world continues to do nothing while Palestinians and their lives are left completely exposed to Israeli violence.

— Yuli NovakB’Tselem’s executive director condemned the demolition and wider displacement of Palestinian communities.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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