Israel destroys West Bank Bedouin village again

Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished the "illegal" homes of some 60 Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank's Jordan Valley, an AFP journalist and activists said. Israeli bulldozers knocked down tents and portable toilets owned by Bedouin families in Homsa al-Baqia, a makeshift village near Tubas in the West Bank that Israeli forces had previously demolished in November, an AFP videographer said. According to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, 61 people, over half of them children, were left homeless following Wednesday's demolitions. The European Union's mission in the Palestinian Territories announced it visited the site yesterday. COGAT, the Israeli army branch responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, said in a statement that the structures had been illegally built in a military training zone and that "the residents had agreed to take down the tents". However, COGAT said the families changed their minds, and so on Wednesday the "last remaining tents at the site were confiscated".