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Less than two weeks before her wedding, Mayar Amrish sat with her family in the spacious courtyard of their home, making plans for the big day.
The 23-year-old Palestinian was preparing for her future, but within hours, her family home would be reduced to rubble.
Outside the house in Farsh al-Hawa, in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Israeli forces were launching a sweeping demolition and forced displacement campaign.
The assault, condemned as collective punishment against Palestinians, followed a shooting on Friday in which two Palestinians killed two Israeli soldiers.
Israel imposed a total lockdown on the city and launched a wide-ranging military assault involving home raids, arrests, demolitions and the forced displacement of thousands of people.
Amrish’s family were among the first to be targeted.
Their offence was living close to the site of the shooting.
When Israeli media reports began circulating on Friday that the army would target such homes, Amrish rushed to gather clothes and essential documents.
“Something inside me told me they were coming to tear it down,” she told Middle East Eye.
“Sure enough, we had barely gathered a few items of clothing when soldiers surrounded the house and ordered us to leave,” she recalled.
Just days earlier, the family had breathed a sigh of relief after an Israeli court informed them that the demolition order against their home had been suspended. The house had faced the threat of demolition for years because it was built in Area C of the occupied West Bank, which remains under Israeli administrative and security control.
Since building the house in 2021, the family had spent around 30,000 shekels ($9,600), in addition to substantial legal fees and fines, trying to prevent its demolition.
'My father worked incredibly hard to build our home so we could finally settle down in our own city'
- Mayar Amrish, Hebron resident
But their reprieve was short-lived. Israeli bulldozers arrived and razed the three-storey home to the ground.
The seven-member family were given no chance to remove their furniture from the 600-square-metre property, which had cost around 2 million shekels ($645,000) to build.
As the demolition unfolded, Amrish’s parents lost consciousness as they watched years of hard work disappear before their eyes.
The family is now staying with Amrish’s uncle while searching for somewhere else to live.
“This house was the fruit of 25 years spent living abroad in Saudi Arabia. My father worked incredibly hard to build it so we could finally settle down in our own city.”
A city under siegeFollowing Friday’s shooting, the Israeli army launched an operation dubbed “Roar of Judah”, saying it would carry out extensive searches, seize weapons, uncover what it described as “terrorist infrastructure” and interrogate dozens of people across Hebron.
Since then, Israeli forces have sealed off parts of the city, carrying out raids, searches and arrests while forcing more than 3,100 Palestinians to leave their homes.
Israel’s defence minister said those displaced would not be allowed to return until what he called “Hamas infrastructure” in the city had been dismantled.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, 47 Palestinians have been arrested in Hebron since the assault began, while hundreds more have been subjected to field interrogations.
The Commission Against the Wall and Settlements said Israeli forces had demolished a building containing three apartments, targeted commercial premises and shops, including a tile and ceramics company and auto parts stores, and bulldozed or damaged around seven dunums (0.7 hectares) of land.
Most of those forced from their homes have been residents of Deir Baha and al-Jalada, in western Hebron.
Yousef al-Jabari, the city’s mayor, said 488 families had been forced to evacuate, affecting more than 3,100 people.
They include over a thousand children, dozens of elderly people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, people with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses, according to the city’s Support and Relief Committee, established to manage the crisis.
‘We left with heavy hearts’The committee said 198 families were staying with relatives, 19 had moved into rented accommodation, and 22 had found other housing arrangements. Another 177 families reported having nowhere safe to stay.
Hamza Shabana, 33, lived with his wife and their two-year-old daughter in an eight-storey residential building in Ein Deir Baha. The building housed at least 160 people.
At dawn on Saturday, the family were forced to flee under threat from Israeli soldiers.
'We are all living in fear of an unknown future'
- Hamza Shabana, Hebron resident
Shabana said troops had surrounded the building and used loudspeakers to order residents out, showing no consideration for the children and elderly people inside.
“My wife, my daughter and I left without being able to take anything other than enough clothing for two days; we departed our home with heavy hearts,” he said.
Soldiers were stationed along roads in the al-Jalada and Ein Deir Baha neighbourhoods, directing displaced residents where to go.
Since fleeing, Shabana has been moving between relatives’ homes, spending each night in a different place.
"There is no stability at all, and we are all living in fear of an unknown future," he said.
Economic lifelines under threatHebron is the most populous governorate in the occupied West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, its population reached approximately 874,000 by the end of 2025, accounting for 15.7 percent of the total population of the State of Palestine.
The city is also a major economic and industrial hub, with a diverse manufacturing base spanning food processing, leather goods, plastics, footwear, stone and marble, jewellery and trade.
But the military operation and the closures imposed on the city and its entry points are taking a heavy toll on local businesses.
Abdo Idris, head of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Hebron, said the economic damage had already reached millions of shekels, warning that losses could rise into the tens of millions.
Al-Jabari said that the operation had severely disrupted industrial and commercial activity, forcing factories to close and preventing workers from reaching their jobs. The movement of goods and raw materials had also been obstructed.
It's time to decolonise the Palestinian economic system Read More »The municipality is working with relevant economic authorities to assess the damage, including the destruction of infrastructure and commercial premises. But the ongoing siege has prevented officials from accessing some affected areas, al-Jabari told MEE.
He warned that a prolonged assault would deepen the losses, disrupt factory operations and deprive workers of their wages, compounding the city’s existing economic and financial crisis.
Despite dwindling resources, he said, the municipality was continuing to support residents, help them remain in their homes and facilitate the return of those displaced.
"The municipality continues to carry out its duties despite a scarcity of resources with the aim of supporting the resilience of the residents," he said.
Islam Hassouna, a professor of economics and business at Palestine Polytechnic University, said the closures were choking off the movement of goods in both directions, preventing Hebron’s products from reaching markets in the West Bank and Israel while restricting supplies entering the city.
The disruption is compounding the damage to the industrial and commercial sectors, he said.
But the consequences reach beyond lost production and trade.
“They also encompass the psychological and social impacts of the siege and the displacement of residents, bringing with them fear and anxiety that further stifle economic activity,” Hassouna said.
Occupation Ramallah, occupied Palestine News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0