Israel destroys West Bank village

On the morning of Jan. 12, a convoy of military vehicles and bulldozers arrived at the Palestinian village of Dkaika in the Jordan Valley, demolishing 16 homes, an animal pen, a store and one of the village school's classrooms. The demolition orders were issued because the structures were built without official permission—which is almost impossible for Palestinians to get.

Dkaika—a community of around 300 people, without electricity or running water—is in Area C, under full Israeli military and civil control, which accounts for 60% of the West Bank. Residents said they believed the demolition orders were on hold while a plan to regularize the village was under consideration by the Israeli authorities.

Between 50 and 60 people were made homeless by the demolitions. A total of 478—many of them children—were displaced in Area C in 2010, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The number for the previous year was 319. (The Guardian, Jan. 14)