Landmines explode under a herd in As-Sakut / Tubas governorate

Landmines explode under a herd in As-Sakut / Tubas governorate

Violation: 3 cows were killed due to Israeli land mines.

Location: As-Sakut / Tubas governorate.

Date: June 04 – 2018.

Perpetrator: The Israeli occupation army.

Victims: Farmer Fayez Abu Mutawa’.

Description:

Over the course of the past five years,  the Israeli Occupation Forces have been conducting military trainings in the area of Palestinian Jordan Valley. As a result, many communities were repeatedly evacuated where vast area of agricultural lands were ravaged, not mentioning the injured and killed people due to the trainings’ leftovers.

In the early morning hours of June 04, while farmer Fayez  was herding his cows, military trainings leftovers exploded causing the death of 3 cows. Financial lost reached 5720 $.

Photos 1-2: The injured cows

Activist Aref Daraghmeh told LRC observer:

“In the recent 2 years, Israeli troops carried several attacks against As-Sakut farmers; one of them was destroying water pipelines were set to irrigate 500 agricultural dunums, and recently military trainings leftovers killed 3 cows. Nevertheless, Israeli troops arrested number of farmers for three hours.

Bsharat, the responsible of colonization file in Tubas governorate told LRC observer:

“ after 1967, the Israeli occupation planted more than 20 mine fields on the Jordanian –Palestinian borders.

In the recent years, the Israeli occupation authorities claimed that they cleared the area from mines. Later on, Settlers replanted thousands of dunums of land mines.

After 9 years of negotiations, number of Palestinian farmers managed to restore their lands and reuse them for agricultural purposes, despite frequent settlers’ assaults.

Noteworthy, recently The Israeli occupation army use the area as a field for military trainings, which caused great damages to farmers and their herds.”

About AL-Sakut:[1]

Khirbet al-Sakut is one of the 32 small villages located alongside the area of the  Jordan river; the area was home for agricultural families who lived in there before the year of 1967. Noteworthy, all the aforementioned areas witnessed the so-called Catastrophe in the aftermath of 1967 war, which resulted in declaring the majority of land as “Buffer zone”.

 

Photos 3-5 : A view of  As-Sakut

150 meters away from the Jordan river and 7km west of Ein al-Bida area, al-Sakut resides there with at least 20 agricultural families inhabiting the area before 1967. In synchronization with 1967 war, the occupation demolished the clay houses and pens relative to the inhabitants of the area, displaced them and declared the area a buffer zone with Jordan. As a result, the area was fenced and landmines were planted to draw boarders.

After the Peace Treaty held between Jordan and Israel, the occupation dismantled the landmines from the boarders area; the free-from-landmines areas were given to colonist to benefit from. The area of al-Sakut was within the lands given to colonists; al-Sakut was known for its water springs, which are now exploited by colonists as  touristic resort named “Ein Sokot”. Palestinians are restrictively allowed in the area under intense surveillance.

[1] GIS-LRC

Categories: Israeli Violations