Violation: the occupation destroys Khirbet al-Taweel

Location:  al-Taweel/ Nablus governorate

Date: 03/11/2014

Perpetrators: the army of the Israeli occupation

Victims: residents of the village

Details:

In a serious escalation by the Israeli occupation, a massive force of the Israeli army accompanied by three military bulldozes raided on Monday November 3rd 20114 the area of Khirbet al-Taweel, east of Aqraba town in Nablus. Bulldozers embarked on ravaging a huge area that reached out the agricultural road, which links the town of Aqraba with al-Taweel. Digging holes in the road was the way bulldozers made sure that it cannot be used again. The targeted road is reported to be of 1.65km, which has been implemented in 2014 through Palestine Agricultural relief and funded by  International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD.

 

 

Photos 1-5: the targeted road

Destroying the town's water network:

It is indicated within the same context that the occupation meant to sabotage part of the water network, which is used to move water from Aqraba to Khirbet al-Taweel. The targeted segment of the network was of a six inch 100m pipe, taking into consideration that the whole network is only 1600m. Noteworthy, this project "the water network" was implemented in 2014 through Palestinian Hydrology Group and the  Union of Agricultural Work Committee UWAC and funded by the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office ECHO.

 

 

Phots 6-9: Trageted project was funded by unded by the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office ECHO.

 

Demolishing three residential room dating back hundreds of years :

In addition to the aforementioned, the bulldozers of the occupation leveled down three residential rooms dating back more than hundred years that are owned by two families from al-Taweel. The demolition came under the pretext of " illegal rehabilitation  and parts annex" as the occupation claimed.

The rooms belong to the following families: Osama Bani Fadel (11 members including 8minors) who has two rooms of 60m2 for each and the family of Baha Bani Fadel (6 members including 4 minors) who has a room of 45m2).

It should be marked that the abovementioned rooms were built primitively by stones and clay.  The reason why the owner wanted to rehabilitate these rooms is to inhabit them during winter, the citizen said.

Photos 10: the destroyed rooms

The occupation refused to license the notified structures:

From his side, the legal activist in Aqraba municipality Yousef Didieh to the LRC researcher asserted that : " the road and the water network were notified on May 2014 with stop work under the pretext of unlicensed construction with area classified C according to Oslo Accords.

A licensing application for construction has been submitted to the Israeli side through Jerusalem Center for Legal Proceedings but the occupation stalled until it demolished both .

Khirbet al-Taweel : an open wound

The Khirbet underwent since 2014 and until the issuance of this report 7 demolitions undertaken by the forces of the Israeli occupation. A month ago, the electricity network was destroyed within the same context of demolitions. A year before, the town's only mosque , three pools (for water catchment) and more than 5 residences were totally leveled to the ground, causing seven families to become homeless (source: field observation/ Land Research Center LRC).

Noteworthy, the occupation claims the area a closed military zone and deny farmers access to their agricultural lands in an attempt to deprive people from life simplest standards.

 

Prepared by
 The Land Research Center
LRC