Israel orders demolition of 27 homes near Hebron

Israel on Tuesday handed out notifications that it will demolish 27 homes in a village south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Popular and National Committees Coordinator in the town of Yatta, Ratib Jabour, said in a statement that the so-called Civil Administration authority with Israeli military escort, had handed demolition orders to families in the nearby village of Zanota. The measure would leave dozens of people without shelter. Cartographer and settlement expert in the southern West Bank Abdul Hadi Hanash denounced “this settlement measure and ongoing attacks by soldiers and Jewish settlers on Palestinians.” “These measures are a continuation of the eviction scheme by the Israeli government,” he added, noting that residents in another village had filed about 200 complaints with the Higher Israeli Court last year appealing to authorities to stop evictions, but the court had turned down their requests and issued military orders for destruction of six homes, bringing to more than 60 the number of structures torn down in a year.