The Civil Administration, a department of the Defense Ministry, on Sunday demolished four buildings in the Palestinian Bedouin hamlet of Khallet a-Sidra, which was largely abandoned after it was raided violently by extremist settlers in January.

According to Youssef Zawahreh, a former resident of the hamlet, all four of the buildings that were destroyed in Khallet a-Sidra, which lies just northeast of Jerusalem, belonged to him.

“All my buildings are gone. This was the work of 20 years; all my life was there, I have nothing left,” Zawahreh told The Times of Israel by telephone.

The Civil Administration confirmed that an “enforcement” operation was carried out on the structures, which it said were illegal.

Zawahreh said, however, that he had built the structures many years ago, and insisted that the timing of the demolition and the targeting of his buildings was designed to prevent him specifically from returning to Khallet a-Sidra since he is the only former resident who is still trying to preserve the existence of the hamlet.

Zawahreh and his wife were severely beaten in the January settler attack, and now live in makeshift accommodation in nearby Mukhmas.

Following the January attack, all 15 families that had lived in Khallet a-Sidra left, and the IDF then placed roadblocks on the road leading from the hamlet to Mukhmas, which meant it would be extremely difficult for residents to........

© The Times of Israel