Israel Uses Cover Of U.S. Election To Destroy Palestinian Homes, Critics Say

Israeli authorities demolished a rural Palestinian hamlet in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, residents and rights advocates said.

More than 70 structures were destroyed, making it the largest single demolition in the past decade and the biggest forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank in over four years, the United Nations said. The statement said 73 people — including 41 children — lived in what it called a "herding community."

"I am 99% certain this was taking advantage of the U.S. elections. ... There were no journalists around," Yasser Abu al-Kbash, a resident, told NPR.

The 48-year-old shepherd said he had lived there all his life. "They bulldozed everything," he said.

Israel gave lower numbers for the structures destroyed.

Khirbet Humsah, also called Humsah Al Bqai'a, was a small community in tents and shacks located in the Jordan Valley, the agricultural breadbasket of the West Bank that Palestinians claim for a future state. Israeli leaders have talked about seeking to permanently control the area for its strategic value because it borders Jordan.