After the demolition
Ahmed Jundeya writes in Vashti on 24 July 2026:
“Dad, when will we go home?”
This is the question that Alaa* keeps asking her father. Every time she looks at him, she waits for an answer that will bring some peace of mind. But her father has no words. The house she longs to return to is gone. Her room, her toys, her clothes, every detail of her small life, were reduced to rubble in minutes.
From 4 May to 14 July, Israeli forces carried out a series of demolitions in Deirat, located in the Masafer Yatta region of the occupied West Bank, less than 10km from my own village. Now, five families – including 25 children – are suddenly homeless, surrounded by the ruins of their lives.
Before the demolition began, the families were given only ten minutes to retrieve what they could carry. Ten minutes isn’t enough to save a home, years of memories, or a life built with patience and toil over many decades. In the end, most of what they owned remained buried under the rubble. Standing in front of what had been his home just hours before, Alaa’s father told me, “I spent years working and saving every shekel I could. I deprived myself and my family of so much so I could build a house to shelter us. I didn’t build it all at once, but brick by brick, and every wall told a story of hardship.
*Names have been changed for their protection.