The Israeli military evacuated a Palestinian family from its home in Khirbet Yarza on Thursday, August 9, and detained a B’Tselem field researcher and a crew from Palestine Television. At about 4:00 P.M., Civil Administration personnel, accompanied by a military jeep, reached Khirbet Yarza in the northern Jordan Valley and ordered a Palestinian family to leave its home by 6:00 A.M. the next morning.

Israeli soldiers detained Aref Dagharmeh, a B’Tselem field researcher, at Khirbet Yarza, August 9, 2018. (Photo: B’Tselem)

This was the second time that the Civil Administration had ordered the family to leave its home, after it delivered temporary orders on August 1 demanding that the family evacuate its residence. Using a tractor and a private car, the family moved to a house belonging to their relatives in the village of Tubas, approximately five kilometers northwest of Khirbet Yarza.

Three families from Tubas who own farmland in Khirbet Yarza were also evacuated from the area. After the families left the area, a Civil Administration officer ordered B’Tselem field researcher Aref Dagharmeh and a crew from Palestine Television, who were documenting the evacuation, to come to Tayaseer checkpoint, where soldiers detained all of them for about three hours.