Lower thirds:

0:02 Report by / Emily Gordine
0:31 Eid Suliman / Community activist
1:08 Sameer Hamamdeh, Resident
2:18 Sameer Hamamdeh, Resident

Script:

Residents of the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir woke up with a fright on Wednesday as several bulldozers approached their village.  

This time, they were spared and the bulldozers drove on. 

People here have been living in constant fear as the Israeli civil administration last month ordered the demolition of 14 structures in this village.  

Among them the community centre – one of the few places for kids to play and a key hub for people to meet.   

SOT Eid Suliman, Community activist (English):  
Since the morning when we just get the news that these bulldozers just pulled over nearby Umm al-Kheir here, we felt very afraid and we thought "oh they will come to Umm al-Kheir for sure" and then people start gathering themselves, some people start collecting their stuff from these homes which are targeted basically.    

Instead, the bulldozers made their way to a neighbouring village.   

We follow their trail through the vast expanse that is Masaffer Yatta in the south of the occupied West Bank.  

This is all that's left of Sameer Hamamdeh's home in Fakhit.   
  
He lived here together with his wife and seven children.  

01:05-01:24
SOT Sameer Hamamdeh, Resident (Arabisch): ((approximate translation))  
They came here and they demolished everything you see here. Here, we had three rooms. A kitchen, a bathroom, and a canopy. They didn’t leave anything standing, as you can see — nothing at all. There was also a water well, and they destroyed that too.  
 
Israeli authorities consider most Palestinian structures in Massafer Yatta to be illegal for lacking Israeli building permits, which are almost impossible for Palestinians to get. 
 
Israel declared much of Masafer Yatta a closed military zone in the 1980s even though many families had been living here for decades beforehand, using the land for herding and agricultural purposes.  
 
Residents tried to appeal the military designation but in May 2022 the High Court of Justice in Israel reaffirmed the army's authority.  
 
This meant the Israeli military was not forced to acknowledge Palestinian presence in the area, allowing Israeli authorities to move ahead with demolitions.  
 
But while Palestinians are having their homes demolished, settlers are building more and more outposts in the same area.   

People here have little recourse in stopping the demolitions – barring some postponements their appeals are mainly rejected. 

02:17-02:31
SOT Sameer Hamamdeh, Resident (Arabisch):
It's forced displacement — they want to drive us out of here. When they demolish the house, that’s it — you have nothing left here, nowhere to go. But we tell them no — we'll rebuild our home again from the start.

Back in Umm al-Kheir, the waiting continues.  

Following a letter to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed by over 100 members of the US Congress, the civil administration delayed the demolition order by 14 days. 

But uncertainty lingers over what will happen then.