Palestinian family sleeps outdoors after home demolished despite court order

Adel Daraghmeh lies on his side on a thin mattress spread over dusty ground, one arm stretched out, a single slipper dangling from his foot. “We cannot sleep, barely drink, and have eaten almost nothing,” he says weakly.

Above him, a black tarp and old blankets are tied between a few crooked wooden poles — the only shelter shielding his family from the scorching sun, which exceeded 43°C in the early afternoon. They have lost their home once again — their house was demolished by an Israeli bulldozer days earlier, despite a court order they believed would protect them.

According to the family, on July 28, Israeli military forces, settlers, and officials from the Israeli Civil Administration arrived with a bulldozer and about ten other vehicles while Kheirieh Daraghmeh, Adel’s wife, was at home with her daughter Hanaa. Despite presenting legal documents — evidence that the house was protected by a prior Israeli Supreme Court order suspending demolition until the case was resolved — the forces proceeded with the bulldozer.

“They said, ‘Five minutes to clear the entire area.’ I couldn’t. I couldn’t clear it. I was alone and I’m sick,” Kheirieh recounts, saying she fainted and woke up three hours later in an ambulance, with the house and all belongings destroyed.

Lawyer Tawfiq Jabareen, representing the Daraghmeh family, said the military and settlers demolished the home despite the court order prohibiting demolition. This is the second time a court order has been ignored, following an earlier demolition of the home of their son Hilal. “The military and settlers demolish despite court orders. They claim it was a military mistake that will not happen again, but the demolition was repeated,” the lawyer said.

The Daraghmeh family are cattle herders who have lived for generations in the Ein el-Hilweh spring area in the northern Jordan Valley. The family consists of four brothers and their families living in the area. They have faced years of demolition orders under a planning system that leaves Palestinians with almost no legal path to build new structures.

Legal expert Allegra Pacheco, who has represented Palestinians before Israeli courts for decades, said: “Israelis set up the system to discriminate and make Palestinians fail. People build, then get a stop-work order, then a demolition order — which you can appeal. But you are appealing to the same people who made the rules to discriminate against Palestinian construction. There is no way Palestinians can win within the existing Israeli legal framework.”

She also highlighted the erosion of the “veneer” of legal protection for Palestinians. Meanwhile, lawyer Jabareen said: “The law and court rulings mean nothing to the settlers, who seek every way to circumvent the law, believing that imposing facts on the ground is stronger than any law or court ruling.”

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), since January 2023, more than 6,200 Palestinians, including over 3,000 children, have been forcibly displaced, with over 2,300 of them since the beginning of 2026 alone. More than 907 Palestinian structures in the West Bank have been demolished this year.

Hilal, Adel’s son, estimates the family’s losses at up to 170,000 shekels (about $57,000). “I couldn’t take anything out — everything is gone,” he said.

Several relatives who spoke on condition of anonymity said many family members fear they will be next: “Now there is nothing to stop them; they don’t even need an order anymore. Of course we are afraid they will come and demolish our homes.”

Al Jazeera contacted Israeli authorities and the military for comment on the events described in this article but did not receive a response.