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Cover image: Screenshot of a video showing the Israeli army demolishing buildings in the village of Khirbet a-Taban on September 2, 2026. © Yehuda Shaul via X On September 2, the Israeli army demolished the village of Khirbet a-Taban in the occupied West Bank. The village is located in Masafer Yatta, an area Israel declared a restricted military zone. Residents of the area have been reporting an increase in demolitions by the Israeli army and harassment by Israeli settlers since the October 7 Hamas attack.
The Israeli army demolished the 12 buildings of Khirbet a-Taban on September 2, 2026, leaving its 70 residents homeless. To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Residents now have no choice but to live in makeshift tents.
One of them, Issa Hamamdeh, told our team: > “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.” Khirbet a-Taban is one of 12 villages in an area known as Masafer Yatta. A total of 1,200 Palestinians have been living in uncertainty since the 1980s, when Israel declared the area a “firing zone” for military training. In 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court endorsed the army’s claims to the area.
Families in eight villages, including Khirbet a-Taban, face a constant threat of being expelled. Israeli human rights groups, includingB'Tselem andBreaking the Silence, have denounced the demolitions, saying the army’s claim to need a training ground is a pretext for expelling the Palestinian population. **‘They steal our sheep and damage our property almost every day’** Since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th 2023, residents of Masafer Yatta report an increase in demolitions by the Israeli army and harassment by Israeli settlers. We spoke to Nidal Younes, head of the Masafer Yatta village council: > “They steal our sheep and damage our property almost every day.
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