ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES DEMOLISH PALESTINIAN PROPERTIES IN JORDAN VALLEY

Nablus, (20 Shafar 1435 / 23 December 2013 MINA) – Israeli occupation forces demolished a residential house and four steel agricultural structures in Fasayil al-Wusta in the Jordan Valley Tuesday morning.

Spokesman of the local Campaign to Save the Jordan Valley Fathi Shqeirat told Ma’an as quoted by Miraj News Agency that more than fifteen Israeli military vehicles escorted two bulldozers into the neighborhood. 

Bulldozers then wrecked a house and two steel structures owned by Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Kharbeish, in addition to two livestock farms owned by Hasan Muhammad Zayid and his brother Hussein.

The pretext for demolition was that the buildings were constructed “without license” from the Israeli authorities as they are in Area C and thus under Israeli control.

Israel has destroyed more than 604 Palestinian properties in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the beginning of this year, displacing 1011 people, according to UNOCHA.

Israel rarely grants Palestinians permits to build in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It has demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian homes and structures since occupying the West Bank in 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the Palestinian West Bank. 

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967. (T/P015/P04)

 

Miraj News Agency