On September 2, 2026, the Israeli military demolished 12 structures in the West Bank village of Khirbet a-Taban, rendering 70 residents homeless. The village is part of Masafer Yatta, a region that Israel designated as a restricted military training zone decades ago.
Following the destruction, displaced families have been forced to reside in temporary tents. Issa Hamamdeh, a resident, described the total loss of essential infrastructure to France 24’s Observers. “My sheep pen is gone. They demolished the wall. They also destroyed the well and the structure around it. And two rooms of the house: the room I use for sleeping, and the kitchen,” he said.
Masafer Yatta encompasses 12 villages where approximately 1,200 Palestinians have lived under uncertainty since the 1980s, when Israel declared the area a firing zone for military exercises. In 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the army’s claims regarding the land. Families in eight of these villages, including Khirbet a-Taban, face ongoing threats of expulsion.
Since the October 7 attacks by Hamas, residents report a significant escalation in demolitions by Israeli forces and harassment from Israeli settlers. Nidal Younes, head of the Masafer Yatta village council, stated that settlers steal livestock and damage property almost daily. “They damage our farmland, the fields we have sown for the winter harvest. The settlers even steal things from inside houses in the region. Unfortunately, this kind of thing has become part of our day-to-day life,” Younes explained.
Human rights organizations such as B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence have condemned the demolitions, arguing that the military’s justification for requiring a training ground is a pretext for ethnic cleansing and the forced displacement of the Palestinian population.
In response to inquiries, the Israeli government maintained that the buildings were destroyed because they were illegal structures erected within an IDF firing zone where construction is prohibited.
According to the United Nations, Israeli settlers have established over a dozen outposts in the area. The UN estimates that 3,800 Palestinians—nearly half of them children—have been displaced from their homes in 2026 due to settler violence, demolitions, and evictions.
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