120 people flee Bedouin hamlet in Jordan Valley after repeated settler attacks

Over 120 people have fled the Bedouin hamlet of Ras Ein al-Auja in the Jordan Valley due to repeated attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers, the B’Tselem rights group says.

Ras Ein al-Auja is the last Bedouin community in the southern Jordan Valley, which B’Tselem says is being “ethnically cleansed” of Palestinians, as Israeli settlers and the government work to expand their control of the West Bank’s Area C.

With the departure of 26 families this week, roughly 100 families remain in Ras Ein al-Auja.

After already dealing with repeated settler attacks since the beginning of the Hamas-sparked Gaza war, a new Israeli outpost was established just 200 meters from Ras Ein al-Auja, in what became a final straw for the 26 families who left.

B’Tselem says the settler intimidation has included daily acts of violence committed by young Israelis — some of them minors — as well as armed settlers backed by military and police forces. The settlers carry out daily incursions into the community’s territory, theft of the livestock belonging to the Bedouin community, vandalism of property and physical attacks on residents, the left-wing rights group says.