[https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinians-left-without-shelter-and-water-settlers-empty-occupied-west-bank-village](https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/palestinians-left-without-shelter-and-water-settlers-empty-occupied-west-bank-village)



# After years of attacks, the last residents of Al-Mu'arrajat East dismantle their homes after a violent overnight raid

>On Thursday evening,[ Israeli](https://middleeasteye.net/countries/Israel) settlers erected a tent just metres away from a [Palestinian](https://middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine) Bedouin village in the Al-Mu'arrajat area in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley.

>Al-Mu'arrajat East, which occupies a small patch of land on a rocky hillside, had endured years of escalating attacks from the nearby Israeli Movot Yorihu settlement.

>Thirty families had already been forced to abandon their homes. The last 20 had clung on until now, but this would be the village's death knell.

>That night, the settlers moved from home to home forcing families out at gun point.

>Resident Aliya Mlihat immediately rang the police, who were slow to respond. When border police and three military jeeps arrived on the scene, they did nothing to stop the onslaught, even facilitating the raids on people's homes.

>  
"Their numbers kept increasing until there were approximately 50 settlers, ranging in age from 18 to 50, all speaking fluent Arabic," she told Middle East Eye.

>Mlihat recalled that "the expressions on the soldiers' faces revealed satisfaction - even joy - as if they were endorsing the settlers' actions".

>In one photo taken by Mlihat, settlers can be seen lounging in chairs and grinning alongside soldiers in fatigues.

>Mlihat tried to document the raid on her phone, but was verbally abused and threatened by the settlers, which included teenage boys, who she said attempted to beat her.

>The attack was led by sanctioned Israeli settler Zohar Sabah, who had set up the new outpost. According to Mlihat, Sabah stormed the area armed with an M16 rifle, shouting at residents to "flee to Jordan".

>  
About an hour into the attack, the settlers were at Mlihat's door.

>"They began searching for anything they could take, shouting: 'Leave now!' I responded firmly: 'We will not leave!' But they continued yelling and hurling insults at me, my mother and my siblings," Mlihat recalled.

>Mlihat and her family left at gun point, along with the remaining families who dismantled their homes and loaded their belongings onto trucks.

>"We had no option but to grab what was left of our memories, dreams, kitchen tools, schoolbooks and my sister's high school exam papers - and go," Mlihat said.

>The community are now scattered across different areas including  the nearby villages of Al-'Awsaj and Al-Auja. 

>Mlihat and her family ended up on the outskirts of a refugee camp, "without shelter, without water, without even air to breathe", she said.

>"We are exposed to the scorching sun, in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius," she told MEE.

Full article in link at top/NO PAYWALL

Palestinians left 'without shelter and water' as settlers empty West Bank village