Land Research Center

Violation: Demolition of an Under-Construction House.

Location: Al-‘Auja town / North Jericho city.

Date: May 2^nd 2022.

Perpetrators: The building inspector at the Israeli Civil Administration.

Victims: Citizen Mahmoud Tariq.

Description:

Eid Al-Fitr , despite its secrecy to Palestinian Muslims, is not a holiday for Israeli destruction and human rights violations.

 In the early morning hours of Monday May 2^nd 2022, a massive army force accompanied by the building inspector at the Israeli Civil administration raided Al-‘Auja north Jericho. And the occupation forces through a civil bulldozer demolished and destroyed an under-construction building built of bricks and cement, that was supposed to provide a residence for the family in the second floor , in addition to stores and shops at the first floor with a total area of 160 m².

The targeted house belongs to family of citizen Mahmoud Tariq (34) , and his family which is composed of 8 people (5 males and 3 females) , among them 5 children.

The affected citizen told LRC the following:

“In summer 2021 I rented a plot from the Islamic Waqf in Al-Khalayil area east Al-‘Auja , and I applied for a construction license and started the construction of the house at the beginning of 2022 , the objective is to provide an adequate house for my children. In February 2^nd 2022, I received a halt of work military order from the Israeli civil administration issued by the building inspector. However, the Israeli Civil Administration refused the license application. and In March 23^rd 2022, I received a military order that requires the demolition and removal of the structure within 7 days, I tried to submit an objection, the occupation refused it but we were surprised of the demolition in the early morning hours of ‘Eid Al-Fitr.     

Since the beginning of this year, Al-‘Auja had a large portion of military orders targeting houses and facilities at different parts of the area.

Al-‘Auja village :

12 km from Jericho city, Al-‘Auja village has a total area of 106,399 dunums, of which 1,186 dunums are a built up area for the village , it also has a population of 5,224 people until 2017 census.

The Israeli occupation confiscated about 4717 dunums for colonization , 1600 dunums are military bases for the army, while bypass 90 , which is 8,180 m long and devoured 818 dunums, in addition to Israeli settlement that ate up 2,299 dunums, as shown in the following table: