Ramallah, February 4 (RHC)-- Israeli regime forces have raided a protest village in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank. According to reports, the Israeli troops stormed the al-Awdeh protest village, demolishing all tent structures there on Monday. The reports said that the soldiers also detained several activists.

The protest village was set up in the Jordan Valley by Palestinian and international activists on Saturday to oppose Israel’s attempts to occupy the region. Activists say that despite Tel Aviv’s move, they will continue to defend Palestinian land in the Jordan Valley from illegal settlement expansion plans of Tel Aviv.

Demolitions are commonplace in the Jordan Valley as the Tel Aviv regime continues with its policy of settlement expansion in the area. Over 90 percent of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control.

James Rawley, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories, recently criticized Israel’s demolition of 36 homes in the Jordan Valley village of Khirbat Jamal. Nearly 70 people including dozens of children were displaced in the aftermath of the demolition.

Rawley’s office said more than 1,000 people were displaced in 2013 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem after their homes were demolished for not having Israeli permits, “which are virtually impossible to obtain.”

Israeli authorities claim they destroy houses which have been built without permission. Human rights groups, however, reject the claim, saying the demolitions are part of an ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians.