Security forces razing hamlet in West Bank’s Masafer Yatta, as evictions ramp up

Israeli security forces are currently carrying out demolitions in the West Bank Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in the Masafer Yatta region in the south of the territory, a rights group says.

The B’Tselem human rights group says that at least 19 buildings have been destroyed so far in Jinba this morning, apparently by the Civil Administration, an agency of the Defense Ministry in charge of enforcement against illegal structures in the West Bank.

Security forces, Civil Administration, demolishing buildings in Palestinian hamlet of Jinba in South Hebron Hills/Masafer Yatta region right now. 19 buildings demolished so far according to B'Tselem… pic.twitter.com/jq4VAjmgJD

— Jeremy Sharon (@jeremysharon) September 23, 2026

The demolitions in Jinba are the third such operation in the last three weeks.

On September 2, the Civil Administration demolished the entire hamlet of Khirbet a-Taban, also in Masafer Yatta, including all 12 homes and almost all other buildings. The dwelling had been home to 12 families, numbering some 70 people.

And on September 8, the Civil Administration demolished five homes belonging to four families numbering 32 people in Khirbet al-Fakhit, less than two kilometers from Khirbet a-Taban, as well as sheep pens, external toilets, water tanks, solar panels, water cisterns and chicken coops.

The homes are in an area that the IDF declared a firing zone in the 1980s, setting off a decades-long legal battle over the fate of several hamlets that fell within the wide borders of the zone.

In May 2022, the High Court of Justice upheld the right of the military to establish the firing zone in the West Bank, and determined that the residents had not successfully proved they had lived in the villages as permanent residents before the army declared the area a training zone. This gave the army the green light to demolish the villages, although demolitions have taken place only sporadically since then.