29 March 2011 | Christian Peacemaker Teams
At 7:00 am on the morning of March 29th 2011 the Israeli military demolished the village of Amniyr , destroying seven tent dwellings and confiscating the remains. This is the second time in just over a month that the Israeli army has demolished the village. After the last demolition, villagers built new tent dwellings a few days later with the help of the Israeli human rights group Ta’ayush and the International Red Cross.
Five residents were transported to the hospital with injuries incurred when soldiers forcibly removed residents from their homes. One resident was injured by a blow to his had by the butt of a gun, and four required treatment for inhalation of teargas used by the soldiers.
Israel does not deny that the demolished homes are on private land owned by the village’s Palestinian residents. Israel simply prohibits the residents from constructing any dwellings, cisterns, or structures of any kind, essentially making it “illegal” for these villagers to live on their land.
Immediately after the demolitions were finished, villagers began to reconstruct what they could of the rubble. As residents started gathering stones from a demolished sheep pen, the sounds of an Israeli bulldozer could be heard across the valley as it continued to excavate new construction for the illegal Israeli settlement of Susiya.
