IDF demolishes Palestinian homes in West Bank, defying High Court
A child lies under the open sky after Israeli forces demolished Palestinian homes in Ein al-Hilweh, in the West Bank’s northern Jordan Valley, 3 July 2026
Matan Golan reports in Haaretz on 4 July 2026:
Israeli authorities demolished on Thursday a Palestinian residential compound in the West Bank’s northern Jordan Valley, two days after the High Court of Justice ruled to freeze demolitions in the area until further notice.
Israeli security forces and officials from the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank, entered the Palestinian community of Ein al-Hilweh while accompanied by three masked individuals in civilian clothes, at least one of whom was armed.
In footage from the scene, one of the masked individuals is heard asking to conceal his name for fear of repercussions. “Say the first letter of the name or surname, so that they won’t come after us later,” he tells one of his companions. Residents said they recognized two of the demolishers, identifying them as Israeli settlers from a nearby farm.
Civil Administration personnel demolished several structures, a cattle fence and water tanks in the compound. Footage shows soldiers at the scene preventing residents from entering the compound during the demolition work. A soldier can be seen instructing a Palestinian photographer to move away from the tractor carrying out the demolitions.
The Israeli military did not respond to Haaretz’s request for comment.
On Tuesday, the High Court of Justice responded to a petition filed by an attorney representing the Daraghmeh family, to whom the compound belongs, ruling that demolitions of the homes must be frozen until the court reaches another decision.
According to the petition filed by attorney Tawfiq Jabareen, the demolition notice was issued in 2022 due to a ban on construction near roads in the West Bank. That same year, the family submitted a request for alternative housing and for the demolitions to be postponed. The petition claimed that the family has resided there since before 1967, on regulated private lands owned by the Latin Church, which permitted them to live there.
Attorney Jabareen, representing the Daraghmeh family, said: “The state has abandoned all its values. The settlers are above the law and above the decisions of the High Court of Justice. Today, there is no difference between the army and the settlers. Everyone is committing crimes against Palestinians and carrying out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. When the extremist Israeli government declares that it does not respect the rulings of the High Court, it trickles down to the officers and soldiers who disregard High Court decisions and demolish structures that the High Court prohibited from being demolished.”
Bimkom, an NGO that advocates for housing rights in Israel and the West Bank, said in an opinion attached to the petition that the homes had been moved over the years according to the seasons, in line with the community’s pastoral lifestyle and due to constraints, and since 2008, they have been settled in the compounds as they stand today.
According to the petition, the demolition notice constitutes discrimination and selective enforcement when compared to illegal Israeli settler farms and outposts in the West Bank. The Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry have been pushing to legalize some 100 such farms, despite many settlers from these communities taking part in the expulsion of Palestinian residents from their homes.
In March, Civil Administration inspectors rejected Palestinian residents’ requests to legalize their homes. Two months later, three residential tents in the compound were demolished, and a new demolition notice was issued for a neighboring compound. This occurred while illegal Israeli settler outposts were being built and expanded nearby.
The petition also mentioned statements made by the commander of the IDF’s Jordan Valley Brigade, Col. Gilad Shriki, while visiting Palestinian communities in the north of the Jordan Valley. Witnesses said the colonel, accompanied by senior Civil Administration officials, told Palestinian residents that he recommended they leave of their own accord, explaining that soon enforcement would be ramped up against illegal construction in the area.
Haaretz then reached out to the IDF regarding the purpose of the tour. The army said the brigade commander had arrived “to provide the communities with a sense of security” and noted enforcement measures against illegal construction. The IDF also said that the building of a new security barrier was mentioned during the tour. The barrier, which is currently being built with the High Court’s permission, will sever the Palestinian communities in the northern Jordan Valley from those to their west, on which the Jordan Valley communities rely for their basic needs.
ccording to a member of the Daraghmeh family who witnessed the incident, one of the settlers who came to demolish the compound threatened to burn down the home if the residents did not leave. “The settler drove the bulldozer. The army arrived and helped them,” he told Haaretz. “I am a father of small children. I have a baby. We didn’t manage to take anything out of the house. Where will I get food for them now? And for the cows?”
According to him, soldiers at the scene were happy about the demolitions. “When I asked them how they had no mercy, they told me to talk to the bulldozer. They didn’t listen when I said there was a court order against the demolition.”
A peace activist who was at the scene described the incident as “a planned and coordinated demolition operation.” The demolition team arrived at the scene shortly before, and “in one moment they simply stormed the compound from all directions,” the activist said. He further noted that the demolition manager was a Civil Administration inspector. “Towards the end, the brigade commander of the sector passed by on the road, smiling from ear to ear, asked how we were, and continued on.”
According to another activist, the soldiers laughed, took photos with the demolitions, and said they were proud of their actions. “I tried to show the soldier the court order, to explain it to him, but he refused to look,” he said. “I asked him again why he was demolishing if there was an order against it, and he replied that he himself was not demolishing, that his orders were only to prevent me from entering. He treated it as if he wasn’t demolishing the home, as if he was disconnected from what was happening behind him and was only preventing me from approaching.” Another person added that even after he presented the court order to an officer at the scene, “she didn’t say anything. It didn’t faze them.”
After the demolitions were completed, activists said, a Civil Administration vehicle drove to other Palestinian communities and posted notices in two additional compounds about the intention to carry out existing demolition orders.
“The picture is very clear,” said one activist. According to him, Israel is carrying out an organized “transfer” of Palestinians out of Area C, but is acting in a creeping manner “to keep international protest at a manageable level.” He added that “all state resources and authorities are mobilized for this transfer. The army, the police, even the courts. We see it every day.”
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition with the High Court of Justice on Friday to prevent the expulsion of the last seven Palestinian herding communities still living in the northern Jordan Valley. The others were expelled after 16 illegal settlements were set up in the area in recent years. The petition said these Palestinian communities suffer harassment, threats and attacks from Israeli settlers, and that state authorities turn a blind eye to the violence, even turning the pressure on the communities themselves.
The petitioners cited as examples demolitions, confiscation of water tanks, denial of access to grazing lands – even those with valid and documented ownership – prolonged and abusive delays by security forces and enforcement measures that leave Palestinians without the ability to sustain themselves.
Petition further said that the harm caused to these herding communities is only worsening, and that there are serious concerns whether they will survive the summer.
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