JERICHO, (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Jewish settlers on Friday set fire to the homes of citizens returning from the Arab Al-Malihāt community to the Al-Mu’arajat area, after they had been displaced from there in early July.
Hassan Malihāt, the general supervisor of Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights and Targeted Villages, said that settler gangs surrounded the residents at dawn and burned their homes.
He added that the burning of homes and renewed attacks on citizens forced them to flee once again at dawn today, following the siege and arson. Malihāt expressed deep concern over the horrific crimes committed by settler groups.
The organization documented firsthand testimonies from Bedouin families who had previously been forcibly displaced and had returned to their homes yesterday in a desperate attempt to regain a minimal level of stability.
Urgent appeal to protect them from forced displacement
Meanwhile, residents of the Arab Al-Malihāt community in the Al-Mu’arajat area, northwest of Jericho, issued an urgent distress call to officials, human rights, and international bodies, demanding immediate intervention to stop what they described as an organized crime of forced displacement carried out by settler groups under the protection of the occupation forces.
In a statement, Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights explained that the community had been subjected in recent months to a series of assaults and violations, including raids, property vandalism, intimidation of residents, poisoning and theft of livestock, and road closures.
It noted that these practices had forced over half of the residents into displacement at the beginning of July.
After 27 days of forced displacement, several families returned on July 31 to their lands in the community, with the support of the Ministry of Wall and Settlement Resistance, the Land Authority, the Jericho Governorate, and other national institutions. They were provided with the bare minimum for resilience, such as tents, water, and electricity, to support their stay.
After their return, settlers surrounded the families in the area, and the Israeli occupation army imposed a siege, amid ongoing threats and the absence of any real guarantees to prevent further attacks.
Residents fear these measures are part of a broader plan to displace Bedouin communities from the Jordan Valley, as part of a systematic policy to empty the land for the sake of settlement expansion.
