The Occupation Forces Demolish Apartment Building Without Prior Notice
📍Kollektivist in the West Bank
16/7-2025
The bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes are manufactured by Caterpillar a company in which the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global ('The Oil Fund') has invested 24 billion NOK - 2,4 billion US dollars.
We met a few of the people whose home was demolished last week.
Cover photo: 'We will not leave': Mahmoud Muhammad Musa Al-Habal with a few of the children who used to live in the demolished building. Photo: Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand
On the 7th of July, fifty Palestinians in the village of Kharbatha al Misbah 12,5 kilometres outside Ramallah were thrown out of their homes without prior notice.
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrived with three bulldozers and more than 200 soldiers and demanded that the 50 people living in a four-story building had to leave immediately, WAFA News Agency reported.
Last week, Kollektivist met Mahmoud Muhammad Musa Al-Habal outside what was once his home. His family owns the building and he and his wife used to live in one of the apartments in the building along with their four children.
When Kollektivist arrived in the village, what struck us was the massive destruction: The huge pile of rocks and the remnants of what the Al-Habal family had called home for over ten years.
The remnants of the building that was demolished on July 7th 2025. Photo: Synne Furnes Bjerkestrand
The Israeli occupation is demolishing Palestinian homes in the West Bank at the highest rate in 50 years. But Al-Habal stresses the fact that they do not have anywhere to go, and that they are insisting on staying on their land.
“Despite everything, we are steadfast, we have faith and we are patient. We´ve invested 1,5 million shekels in our home, and now it is all gone. The demolition came as a huge surprise to us,” Mahmoud Al-Habal told Kollektivist.
He was sitting on a chair in the shadow, next to the ruins of his old home as we spoke with him. He and his wife and their four children are now staying with family members who live next door.
They are prohibited from removing the remnants of the building and are forced to look at the destruction every day. This creates huge pain and stress, Al-Habal said.
“For the ten years we have been living here, the occupation did not once come to talk with us. But two weeks ago, they came and asked us general questions about the village and our home. They did not mention anything about coming back to demolish our home.”
They were not given any notice beforehand. The IOF simply showed up at 6AM while the families were still sleeping.
The occupation is escalating the forced displacement of Palestinians
To demolish the buildings the IOF are using bulldozers and excavators from the US company Caterpillar that the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global ‘The Oil Fund’ has invested approximately 2,4 billion US dollars in.
According to Amnesty International, The Oil Fund’s investments in companies that operate on illegally occupied Palestinian land is a violation of international law.
The IOF are also using bulldozers from the South Korean company Hyundai, which The Oil Fund has invested approximately 14,8 million US dollars in.
The investments in Israeli companies have faced criticism in Norway. Campaigns like “Mitt oljefond, mitt valg” (“My oilfund, my choice”) have demanded that they divest from companies “with an unacceptable risk of contributing to violations of international law in Palestine.”
It is not the first time an apartment building in Kharbatha al Misbah, a village of over 6000 inhabitants, is demolished. The last time was about six months ago. It is likely done to scare the other residents and make them want to leave, Al-Habal told Kollektivist.
“They (the IOF) do not have any humanity. I just woke up hearing them outside my home, and saw that they had already demolished the wall outside our building,” he said.
Told to leave immediately
Mahmoud said that the IOF told him to get out immediately, and then they proceeded to body search him. He asked to get his phone to call his lawyer, but that was in vain: the soldiers did not give him time to do anything.
They had to rush out of the building and then the IOF started the demolition immediately.
They only managed to get out a few belongings before the IOF used bulldozers and excavators to demolish the building.
“You can imagine how many things we had after living there for ten years, how many photos and memories. Every floor was 250 square meters big, it was the largest building in the village,” Mahmoud Al-Habal told Kollektivist.
The demolition of the building is not an isolated event. Since January 2025, when the IOF started the “Operation Iron Wall” in the north of the West Bank, over 30. 000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from the refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarem.
Since the start of the “Iron Wall” operation, the occupation’s security forces have issued demolition orders for around 1,400 homes. The demolitions have forcibly displaced 2,907 Palestinians across the West Bank since October 2023 and at least 964 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis* and the IOF in the same period.
Mahmoud told Kollektivist that they will not be leaving their village despite being forced out of their home.
“What can we do? We are homeless and will be living with relatives while waiting for the concerned institutions to provide us with assistance. We will remain steadfast and Allah is sufficient for us, he is the best disposer of affairs,” he said.
* We have chosen to not use the common term “settlers”, which is often used when referring to Israelis who live illegally in the West Bank. The reason for this is that the term indicates that the areas occupied in 1948 are not occupied as well. The Israelis living there are also settlers.
