Land Research Center

• Violation: demolishing homes and facilities.

• Location: Al-Sateeh area / Jericho governorate.

• Date of violation: 05/25/2022.

• The aggressor: the so-called civil administration affiliated with the occupation.

• The affected party: the two citizens, Ahmed Abu Al-Dalam and Ayman Ghazi Qadhmani.

• Details of the violation:

On the morning of Wednesday (25/5/2022), a large force of the occupation army, accompanied by two bulldozers, stormed the “Al-Sateeh” area, southwest of Jericho. The occupation soldiers imposed a cordon around the area, before demolishing two houses and the retaining walls that surrounded them, in addition to a barracks used for raising sheep, owned by Ahmed Ali Salman Abu Al-Zalam. These facilities and houses have been completely leveled with the ground.

The affected citizen told the Land Research Center’s field researcher the following:

“In the middle of the year 2021, I started building two houses for housing my family on a plot of land that I own, and which I inherited from my grand grand fathers, And I built retaining walls around them, in addition to the fact that I owned a metal agricultural barracks in the same site that I used to raise sheep, and on February 14/2022 AD, I received a notification to stop construction on the two houses, fences and barracks, and I worked at that time to prepare the required legal file. I submitted it to the Israeli authorities that issued the notification, but I was surprised by another notification entitled (Final order to stop work and demolish” what was built within 7 days). At that time, I assigned a lawyer to follow up on the judicial process, and I directly obtained a precautionary order from the occupation court in Jerusalem to freeze the demolition of these facilities until next September, but the occupation on the ground, the court's decision was blown off the wall and they demolished the two houses, the fences and the barricade in violation despite the presence of an official decision Issued by the Israeli court, and the value of the losses amounted to 320,000 shekels.”

On the other hand, the Israeli army demolished last February at a distance of no more than 300 meters from the aforementioned target site, retaining walls around a 2-donum plot of land owned by the Jerusalemite Ayman Ghazi Qadmani, under the pretext of not having a permit.

On 16/5/2022, the occupation authorities also issued an order to demolish these buildings, bearing the number (621679), whereby the occupation set a period of (7) days for their demolition.

Military Order No. 621679 targeting the buildings of the citizen Kodmani

The following table shows the details of the damages according to the field follow-up at the site where the violation occurred:

It is noteworthy that Al-Sateeh area is considered one of the hot spots in Jericho Governorate, where the occupation demolished more than 22 residential facilities over the past four years, not to mention targeting more than 100 residential and agricultural facilities through stop-building notifications there.

As-Sateeh in lines:

As-Sateeh is related to Jericho governorate administratively related to Jericho governorate, northeast the city, and has a population of 940 people according to Jerusalem municipality, most of which originate from Jerusalem and Hebron, and the rest belong to three families: (Samrat, Fhidat, Jama’an) and they originate from Jericho.

As-Sateeh has a total area of 2300 dunums, and it is worth noting that the Al-Duk Al-Tahta area is famous for its abundance of water springs, where there is the Al-Sateh spring, which pumps at a power of 13 cups per hour and contributes to filling part of the population's need of water for drinking and agriculture, moreover, it contents several religious and historical sites, which makes it a destination for tourists.