The exercise of house demolition in Imreha village.

May 25, 2004

Imreha- Jenin: The elderly disabled Mr. Ali Turkman sitting in his mini barrack shop before it was demolished, Photo courtesy of LRC

Location and population

The village of Imreha is located 24 km to the west of Jenin city. It is bordered by the Palestinian villages of Ya'bad (north east), Kurf Ra'I (south) Ikfiret (east) and Baqa Ash Sharqiya (west). The village houses a population of about 500 persons (65 nucleus families) and they are all related to the families of Hamdoni and Turkman. The village is surrounded by the following Israeli colonies:

1. Mevo Dotan colony to the east, established in 1978;

2. Hermish colony to the west, established in 1982;

3. Rehan and Shaked colonies to the north, established in 1977 and 1981 consequently consecutively. See map of location

The village of Imreha ( in red circle).

Type of violation

The village of Imreha has been faced up by a series of house demolition campaigns, first of which took place on October 7,.2002, where 9 structures were demolished as listed in table 1: detailed information of demolished structures in Imreha Village dated on October 7, 2002.

No.	Victim's name	Description of structure	Area in M2	Estimation of losses in US $
1	Awad Khalid Hamdoni	Inhabited house, built of bricks and roofed with cement	100	20000
2	Eid Qasim Hamdoni	Barrack built of bricks and roofed with zinko with 1 m height.	120	3000
3	Ahamd Mohammed Hamdoni	Barrack built of bricks and roofed with zinko with 3 m height	140	3500
4	Ahmad Mohammed Hamdoni	Inhabited barrack built of bricks and roofed with zinko	168	4500
5	Akram Mohammed Hamdoni	Inhabited barrack built of cement and roofed with cement	126	25000
6	Husam Mohammed Hamdoni	Barrack built of cement and roofed with zinko with 3 m height	51	2000
7	Adeeb Nawaf Hamdoni	Inhabited house built of bricks and roofed with cement	121	24000
8	Ibrahim Naif Hamdoni	Residential house built of bricks and unroofed yet	102	5000
9	Issam Jihad Abu Irmila	Barrack built of bricks and roofed with zinko	204	3000
			1132	90000

See Photo 2 & Photo 3

Imreha- Jenin: Ruins of houses demolished on 7.10.2003, Photo courtesy of LRC

The second house demolition campaign was carried out by the Israeli army on the 21st of April 2004, in which 5 structures were demolished as listed in Table 2: detailed information of structures demolished in Imreha village on the 21st of April 2004

No.	Victim's name	Description of structure	Area in M2	No. of family members
1	Nawaf Mustafa Hamdoni	Sheep barrack built of brocks and roofed with zinko	150	7
2	Khalid Naif Hamdoni	Residential house under construction	80	5
3	Khalil Haider Amarna	Residential house built of bricks and roofed with zinko	30	10
4	Ali Atiya Turkman	Barrack used as dwelling place and shop for a disabled man	20	1
5	Ali Salim Amara	Poultry barrack	200	6
Total			480	29

See Photo 4 & Photo 5 &

Imreha- Jenin: Remains of demolished barracks, Photos courtesy of LRC

Number of livestock in the village:.

People of Imreha mainly depend on animal husbandry and agriculture as their main source of income. The total number of sheep is estimated by 600, in addition to 10 cows.

Background to the village

In an interview conducted by LRC field worker with the deputy director of the Village council, Mr. Mahmud Nawwaf Hamdouni, said: 'The village of Imreha did not exist before the 1948 war as its residents are refugees who were dismissed out of their houses and lands, mainly from As Sindiyana, Al mansi and Breika villages. The village of Imreha lacks a planning scheme. It is classified as zone C according to Oslo agreement in 1994; hence, building is prohibited. All the existing houses are roofed with Zin sheets and are built without licenses which are threatened to be demolished at any time by the Israeli occupation forces. The Palestinian construction is prohibited due to the proximity of the village from the Green Line and its location close to the aforementioned Israeli colonies. The village also lacks water and electricity networks in addition, there are no schools, clinics and mosques for people to practice their right of worshipping. See Photo 6

Imreha- Jenin: A general view of the village, Photo courtesy of LRC

In regards to education and health services, the village totally depends on the neighboring village of Ya'bad. Concerning drinking water, the village gets mobile tanks from the neighboring villages.

Problems faced by village dwellers

1. Economically speaking, residents of Imreha village have no available land to cultivate. They live as refugees and used to work as laborers in Israeli before the current Intifada. About 65 of the laborers were dismissed from their jobs inside Israel; thus, increasing the percentage of unemployment to 85. Some of the dismissed laborers now work as animal breeders and are negatively suffering from the construction of a colonial bypass road that is linking the aforementioned Israeli colonies together and completely segregating vast areas of grazing lands. This situation forced them to start buying animal fodder for their cattle; thereby, increasing the cost of production. See Photo 7 7

Imreha- Jenin: Israeli heavy machines working on colonial roads in the area, Photo courtesy of LRC

2. Residents of Imreha village suffer from poverty which in turn result in many physical and psychological disorders and diseases, especially amongst children and elderly.

3. Residents live in constant fear and uncertainty about the future as many of their dwellings have been demolished or threatened to be demolished. This situation has created a state of despair and frustration. An example of this gloomy situation is the case of Mr. Ali Atiya Turkman, 64 years old. Mr Atiya suffers from disability and used to have a small caravan which he used for selling candies and snacks for children. This caravan was demolished on April 21st, 2004; thus, leaving him without any source of living. See Photo 8