The Polish Medical Mission (PMM), which runs a mobile clinic in Khan al-Ahmar serving around 150-200 residents, warned that demolition would leave villagers homeless overnight and erase three years of work funded by Polish taxpayers.
"Our mobile clinic visits residents who are completely cut off from medical care, consults and treats children, women and men, and runs psychosocial sessions for women and children", said Małgorzata Olasińska-Chart of the PMM.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Maciej Wewiór said Warsaw "firmly opposes plans to build new Jewish settlements in the E1 area, in which Khan al-Ahmar is located", adding that Israeli government decisions "contradict international law". He said Poland was coordinating with other countries on a joint response.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees civilian administration in the occupied territories, announced on May 19 he would sign an order for the village's immediate evacuation. The announcement came amid — later denied — reports that the International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant against him.
The U.N. human rights office condemned the plan, calling forced displacement in occupied territories a war crime.
Khan al-Ahmar is home to Palestinian Bedouins originally displaced from the Negev desert in the 1950s. Israel's Supreme Court has approved their eviction, though successive governments delayed action fearing international backlash.
Leaders of France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Canada, Australia and New Zealand last week jointly called for the planned E1 settlement — which would be built partly on land currently occupied by Khan al-Ahmar — to be halted.
(jh)
Source: PAP