At least 50 Palestinian families of a Bedouin community in occupied West Bank have fled their homes, following assaults and repeated harassment on the part of Israeli colonists under the protection of Israeli forces, according to media reports and a group for the defense of local rights.
Friday morning, thirty Palestinian families were forcibly moved to the Arab community Mleihat Bedouin, northwest of Jericho, reported the Palestinian news agency Wafa, while 20 others were moved on Thursday.
Before forced trip, the community housed 85 families, around 500 people.
A group for the defense of Palestinian rights, the Al-Baidar organization for the defense of Bedouin rights, said that families had been forced to leave after years trying to defend themselves “without any support”. The attacks by the Israeli forces and the Israelis of the illegal colonies crossed the occupied West Bank since the War of Israel against Gaza began on October 7, 2023.
Alia Mleihat told Wafa that her family had been forced to flee to the AQBAT Jabr refugee camp, south of Jericho, after armed settlers threatened it as well as other families under the threat of firearm.
In addition, Mahmoud Mleihat, a father of seven children of the community, told the Reuters news agency that they could no longer take it, so they decided to leave.
“The colonists are armed and attack us, and the (Israeli) army protects them. We can do nothing to stop them,” he said.
Hassan Mleihat, director of the Al-Baidar organization, said that community families began to dismantle their tents, following provocations and supported attacks of Israeli and army settlers.
Images published on social networks and verified by the Sanad agency in Tel Aviv Tribune have shown trucks responsible for possessions which move away from the night region.
Hassan told Wafa that attacks also threatened to erase the community and “pave the way for illegal colonial expansion”.
‘We want to protect our children’
The Israeli Human Rights group B’tselem has documented acts of violence repeated by Israeli settlers against the Palestinians in Mu’arrajat, near Jericho, where the Mleihat tribe lives.
In 2024, the settlers armed with clubs stormed a Palestinian school, while in 2023, the armed settlers blocked the road to vehicles carrying Palestinians, some pulling in the air and others launching stones on vehicles.
“We want to protect our children and have decided to leave,” said Mahmoud, describing him as a great injustice.
He had been living in the community since the age of 10, said Mahmoud.
Alia Mleihat told Reuters that the Bedouin community, which lived there for 40 years, would now be dispersed in different parts of the Jordan valley, including Jericho nearby.
“People demolish their own house with their own hands, leaving this village in which they have lived for decades, the place where their dreams have been built,” she said, describing the forced trip of 30 families as a “new Nakba”.
The Nakba, which means “disaster” in Arabic, refers to the mass movement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their houses in 1948 at the birth of the State of Israel.
The Israeli army has not yet commented on the harassment of the colonists to which Bedouin families or families leave their community leave their community.
Asked about violence in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Saar on Monday to journalists that any act of violence by civilians was unacceptable and that individuals should not take over.
Activists claim that the expansion of the Israeli colonies has accelerated in recent years, moving the Palestinians, who have remained on their land under military occupation since Israel captured the occupied West Bank during the 1967 war.
Most countries consider the illegal Israeli colonies and a violation of the Geneva conventions, which prohibit civilians in establishing occupied land.
