Evacuation and demolition orders were handed out to a Bedouin family east of Tubas on March 27, local officials told Ma'an News Agency. The orders come amid concern from UNRWA officials who noted a near two-fold increase in home demolitions during the first two months of 2011. Nabil Mustafa Daraghmeh, the head of a Bedouin family in the Ein Al-Hilwa area outside of Tubas in the northern West Bank, was served papers demanding he and his family evacuate their tent home and move their herds elsewhere. Palestinian security officials said several Israeli military patrol cars arrived in the area to serve the papers, which gave Daraghmeh one day to leave the area.

Bedouin herding families have recently been targeted by Israeli officials, who have begun executing orders for evacuation on areas that the Civil Administration has determined are "state land," fall under Israeli-controlled Area C, or are designated as firing or military training areas. Areas that are not under Palestinian civil control amount to some 60 percent of the West Bank, according to assessments by the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The UN Relief and Works Agency said last week that the first two months of 2011 saw more than 70 homes and agricultural buildings destroyed on order of Israeli forces, displacing more than 100 Palestinians, almost half of which were minors. (Ma'an News Agency, March 28)

See our last posts on the West Bank and the Bedouin struggle.

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