Last month, Israeli forces demolished a home in the Negev Bedouin village of in Wadi al-Khalil Where a single mother lived with her four young daughters—three of whom are deaf and one of whom has cancer—as well as the children's grandmother.
Officials from the Land Enforcement Authority, operating under the Ministry of National Security, executed the demolition, for which the family will be billed. Although most of the 264 structures in the unrecognized Bedouin village had already been demolished on May 8, 2024, the family's home had initially been spared out of consideration for their situation.
“They came like a commando unit, as if we were enemies,” Nimer Abu Assa, the mother's brother, said in an interview with Davar. According to residents, no demolition order was presented to the family two weeks in advance, as is customary.
The mother, originally from Umm Batin, had moved to Wadi al-Khalil with her mother to receive assistance in caring for her ill daughter. The demolition was carried out based on an order issued in 2002, which had been frozen in 2023 in light of the family's circumstances. A court ruling had stipulated that the state must provide alternative housing and give sufficient advance notice before carrying out any demolition.
Following the destruction of their home, the family was left without housing. According to family members, no alternative housing was offered. For several days, they lived in an improvised tent under a tree in the remains of the village, similarly to the approximately 150 other displaced residents whose homes were demolished earlier in May. Eventually, the family relocated to the home of the mother's sister in the Bedouin town of Ar’arat an-Naqab. The girls were consequently cut off from the specialized educational and therapeutic services they had relied upon.
Hanan Alsanah, a Bedouin lawyer who directs the Center for the Advancement of Bedouin Women’s Rights at the Women Lawyers for Social Justice, is representing the family. She told Davar that the demolition involved two major legal violations: first, ignoring the 2023 court order requiring alternative housing before demolition; and second, failing to provide the mandatory 14-day advance notice, which would have allowed the family to request a stay of execution or cancel the demolition order—or, at the very least, to carry out a self-demolition and avoid bearing demolition costs.
Alsanah said that two days before the demolition a police officer had arrived with a photograph of a house that they claimed would be demolished. “The family explained that the house in the picture was not theirs, it was her brother’s house,” she said.
Ibrahim, the mother's brother, subsequently demolished his own house on Sunday. During the mass demolition on May 8, 2024, enforcement forces had initially bypassed his home because Ibrahim’s wife is the sister of Osama Abu Assa, who was murdered on October 7 near Kibbutz Re'im.
Under current policies, the cost of demolition, including labor, equipment, worksite security, and transportation, is charged to the occupants of the destroyed structure. Alsanah noted that the mother “may face fines amounting to tens of thousands of shekels for the demolition because she did not demolish the house herself.”
The mother was finally making positive progress in her daughter’s cancer treatment, Alsanah said. “Only during the time that we secured housing did she find some peace and was able to focus on the care her daughter needed.” she said. Since the demolition, “she has been preoccupied with the issue of the house and finding a solution for the girls.”
Alsanah said that the eldest daughter's cancer and the others’ disabilities should have prevented the demolition under the law. “The conduct here is not only illegal in terms of planning and construction, it is inhumane and violates humanitarian law.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Marina Levy.
