Notifications to stop work in 3 houses in the village of Al-Dirat, east of Yatta, south of Hebron

• Violation: notifications to stop work and construction.
• Violation date: 21/06/2022.
• Location: Al-Dirat village – Yatta town / Hebron governorate.
• The aggressor: the so-called civil administration of the occupation.
• Affected party: 3 citizens of the village

The details:

On Tuesday, June 21, 2022, the Israeli occupation authorities issued notices to stop work and construction in three houses, under the pretext that they were built without a license, in the village of Al-Dirat, east of Yatta town, south of Hebron Governorate.

The citizens, who own the houses, reported that a military vehicle belonging to the occupation army, accompanied by a civilian vehicle belonging to the so-called Organization and Construction Department of the “Civil Administration,” raided the village in the afternoon hours, and wandered between the citizens’ homes, then headed towards the eastern neighborhood, and the so-called building inspector wrote and pasted the notices on the threatened homes, and then take pictures of them before leaving the site.

The occupation’s notifications came under the title “Notice to stop work – construction” and ordered an immediate halt to construction work, under the pretext of starting it without a permit (building license), and on the pretext that the buildings are built in Area C, according to the Oslo Accords.

In its notifications, the occupation authorities also set (6/7/2022) as a date for a session of the so-called Inspection Subcommittee, which will hold its session at its headquarters in the “Beit El” settlement, and will discuss what it called “the demolition of the building or the return of the place to its previous state.”

The notifications targeted the homes of citizens listed in the following table:

Affected citizen	Family members	Children	Females	Size of the house	Building stage	Notification number	Photo
Muhammad Tayseer Al-Adra	6	4	2	160	Ready to move in	41183
Munir Radi Jabarin	8	6	3	340	Finishing	41184
Ehab Attia Abu Aram	6	4	3	140	Inhabited	41185
Total	20	14	8	640

The citizens who received the notifications explained that they built their homes on land they own according to old documents, and they will also apply for a license for their homes, and appoint lawyers to object to the occupation notifications.

It should also be noted that the occupation authorities do not grant building licenses for Palestinians in areas classified as “C”, and they invoke flimsy pretexts for not granting these licenses, and despite the citizens submitting hundreds of requests annually, but they reject them, and then issue orders to demolish the buildings.

Al-Derat Village[1]:

The village of Al-Dirat is located east of the town of Yatta, about six kilometers away from it. It is an agricultural village, with a population of about (700) people. It falls under the Khallet Al-Mayah municipality. The village is inhabited by Yatawi families (Al-Hamamdeh, Musafiya, Al-Adra), and it is crossed by the bypass road No. (317), which connects the settlements established in the north of the West Bank to its south. The village is bordered from the east by: Arab Al-Kaabneh and the settlement of ‘Carmiel’, from the west: the town of Yatta, and from the north: Khirbet Al Buwaib, and from the south the village of Umm Lasfah and the settlement of “Ma’on”. The citizens of the village aspire to expand the structural plan of their village, from (250) dunums as in the old structural plan of, to a new scheme of about (1,000) dunams, to include all the houses and facilities in the village, hoping to protect it from the notifications of the occupation and demolitions, but the occupation authorities refused to approve this expansion plan that was submitted.

[1] LRC.