Army to annex 80% of Al Aqaba village

Saturday May 12, 2007 06:12 by IMEMC Staff

Residents of Al Aqaba village, near the West Bank city of Tubas, are subjected to continuous Israeli annexations to their lands and parts of their village, especially after the Israeli army prepared a new map drawing “the new border of the village”.

Closed military zone

Sami Sadeq, head of Al Aqaba village council, stated that the new Israeli plan will wipe the villages’ lands, especially since only 300 residents are living there now and at least 600 were forced to leave it due to the Israeli expansion and annexation policies.

Sadeq added that the village will disappear from the map if Israel carries its plan which is aimed at reshaping the village in accordance to a military decision which aims at annexing 805 Dunams of it lands. If this map is fully implemented, only six houses will remain inside the new border of the village.

Sadeq added that the army intends to demolish all of the houses that will be out of the village’s new border, and to move these families to the new boundaries of the village after it loses most of it lands. He added that the plans must be exposed and countered since the Israeli occupation is using the current conditions in order to go on with its expansion plan.

He also said that this is a new maneuver practiced by the army, and that the residents had been filing appeals to the Israeli High Court of Justice since many years, while the army continued its plans and illegal activities.

The army wants to demolish houses, a mosque, a clinic and a kindergarten in the village area in order to place the residents in a small area and consider the rest of the lands as closed military zones.

So far, the army issued orders to demolish 28 Palestinian houses in the village, while the residents remained isolated after the army closed its three entrances and is using the village’s land as military training zones.

Majid Sbeih, a local resident of Al Aqaba, stated that he and his brother and sister received notices from the army informing that that their homes will be demolished, in spite the fact that these homes are owned by the family.

The Plaines area, were Tubas and the surrounding villages and towns are located, has been subjected to continuous Israeli violations, especially since the army isolated the whole area from the west Bank, and forced the residents to live in closed enclaves in an attempt to force them out.

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