Middle East Monitor / April 21, 2021
Israeli occupation authorities issued demolition notices to 13 houses inhabited by Palestinians in the village of Qabalan, south of the occupied northern West Bank city of Nablus, reported Wafa news agency.
The demolitions of the Palestinian homes were ordered under the pretext that they lack the necessary building licenses.
Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian official in charge of the settlements’ portfolio in the northern West Bank, said Israeli forces raided the village and handed the orders against the 13 houses located in Area C of the occupied West Bank.
He added that some of these houses are already inhabited while others are in the final stages of construction.
Israel’s widely practiced policy of home demolitions and destruction of other property targets entire families. Such demolitions are regarded as illegal collective punishment and are a violation of international human rights law.
Palestinians in Area C – territories that under the Oslo Accords are under full Israeli control – have great difficulty getting building permits. Most Palestinian communities do not have master plans, while others cannot get expansion plans approved.
The Zionist state, meanwhile, approves the construction of thousands of residential units within illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the area.
The building permits are charged at extortionate prices and are unaffordable for most Palestinians, creating a legal loophole for Israel to annex more land and leave Palestinians in limbo by preventing them from developing infrastructure.
