Violation: Demolishing two houses.

Location: Kisan village / Bethlehem governorate.

Date: October 10^th 2019.

Perpetrator: The Israeli Occupation Civil Administration.

Victims: Families of Amjad Ghazal and Ayman Ghazal.

Description:

The Israeli Occupation bulldozers accompanied by a vehicle from the civil administration raided Kisan village east Bethlehem, and demolished two houses belong to Amjad Ghazal and Ayman Ghazal on the pretext of building without licenses.

Noteworthy, the Israeli Occupation civil administration raided the area in September 24^th 2019, and delivered “demolition within 96 hours notices”, the owners did not have the chance to submit a petition because the 96 hours happened to come with the Jewish holidays.

Amjad Ghazal told LRC:

“The Occupation is immoral, my brother and I have nowhere to go. We used to live in a very small house, and we only built those houses after great effort and difficulty, it is a basic human write to have an adequate house.”

Hssain Ghazal from Kisan told LRC:

“Kisan village is a target for Israeli illegal settlers; some of them harass our children in their way to school, they want us to evict the village for their colonial projects.”

Only 16 days later, the Israeli occupation bulldozers and troops raided the area, imposed closure and demolished two houses.

The following table shows more information about the targeted structures:

Photo 1: halt of work notice on Amjad’s house

Photo 2: The two houses before the demolition

Photos 3-5: the two houses after the demolition

Kisan:

Located 18km south of Bethlehem, Kisan village is surrounded by Tuqu' (north), Sa'ir (west), the Dead Sea (east), Arab ar Rashayda/ Sa'ir/ Al Buweib (south). Kisan has a population of 560 people (2017 census). It has a total area of 133,278 dunums- 88,7 of which are built-up area. The Israeli occupation confiscated 2201 dunums of Kisan lands to build the following colonies:

Maale Amos which was built in 1981 and devoured 320dunums of Kisan. It is inhabited by 299 colonists.

Mizpe Shalem which was built in 1971 and confiscated 396 dunums. 193 colonists live in that colony.

Mizpe Shalem B which was built in 1980 and stole 58 dunums.

Ibei Hanachal outpost which confiscated 166 dunums of Kisan.

Israeli Bypass road number 90 devoured more than 1000 dunums.

According to Oslo Accords, 11% of Kisan is considered nature reserve while 40% is under Area B (PA is in charge of civil matters with Israel responsible for security). However, most of the village lands (49%) is under Area C (Israel maintains full security and administrative control). Here are the areas in dunums:

• Land considered natural preserve (24.480) dunums
• Area B (88.5) dunums
• Area C (108.455) dunum

[1] GIS-LRC

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union The content of this document is the sole responsibility of LRC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union