Israeli forces Monday notified Palestinians in Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar locality, southeast of Tubas, to halt the construction of several residential structures, said a local activist.
Aref Daraghmeh, who monitors settlement activity in Jordan Valley, said Israeli forces broke into Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar, where they delivered notices for several Palestinian families ordering them to halt the ongoing construction of a number of residential structures, tents and livestock pens, citing unlicensed construction as a pretext.
He added that forces had occasionally delivered stop-construction notices for local families and denied them construction licenses.
Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar has been frequently targeted by Israeli forces and so-called Inspection Subcommittee which seeks to forcibly displace indigenous locals and seize their lands.
On May 30, Israeli military handed out military orders to evacuate 12 Palestinian families from their houses and land in this area under the claim of the Israeli military trainings. The evacuation schedule was be as follow: on the 30th of May 2016 from 6:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., on the 31st of May 2016 from 6:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and on the 1st of June 2016 from 6:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
Khirbet Ras al-Ahmar, according to Land Research Center, is located eight kilometers southeast of Tubas in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. According to the Oslo Accords, it is classified as Area C, where Israel maintains full security and administrative control. It occupies a total area of 36 dunums and was inhabited by 260 Palestinians whose agricultural and residential structures are under constant threat of demolition.
The locality has been inhabited by Palestinian Bedouin families long time before the Israeli occupation started in 1967.
Israel is planning to annex the Jordan Valley into a completely Israeli area, primarily in agriculture, targeting to ban territorial contiguity between a future Palestinian state and the rest of the Arab world.
To this end, tens of settlements and agricultural outposts have been established by Israel in the Valley, which makes up about one-third of the total area of the occupied West Bank.
Source: Wafa