Israel expels Palestinian families in Jordan Valley

By Qais Abu Samra

JORDAN VALLEY (AA) - The Israeli army on Tuesday expelled 10 Palestinian families from their homes in the northern Jordan Valley, northeast of the occupied West Bank.

The army ordered expulsion, saying the area was being cleared to conduct military exercises.

Moataz Basharat, a senior official who monitors Israeli settlement activities, said that Israeli forces evacuated 10 families who live in the villages of Al-Burj and Al-Maita in the Jordan Valley.

Basharat pointed out that the exercises are being conducted with live ammunition.

He denounced the practices of the Israeli occupation saying that it "aims to expel Palestinians from the Jordan Valley and control it."

Notably, these exercises cause significant damage to the residents' crops as military vehicles roam farmland paving roads through them.

The area of ​​the Palestinian Jordan Valley is about 1.6 million acres and at least 13,000 Israeli settlers live in 38 settlements while more than 65,000 Palestinians live in 34 communities in the region.

*Bassel Barakat in Ankara contributed to this report