Middle East Monitor / March 8, 2021
Israeli occupation forces today demolished a Palestinian house that was under construction and a water well in the village of Bani Naim in Al-Khalil-Hebron.
According to a Wafa correspondent, Israeli soldiers raided the area east of Bani Naim and demolished the 500-square-metre house and a 200-square-metre well, used for collecting rainwater, for lacking a building permit.
Israel continues to steal water from the occupied West Bank by curbing Palestinian access to it while increasing the control illegal Jewish-only settlements have over water resources in the area.
Israel also makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to get building permits, while the Israeli government plans and expands illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank regularly.
Israeli demolitions, on the grounds of lacking building permits, are widely viewed as illegal, according to international law. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has called on Israel to stop the practice.
Last week, OCHA revealed that the Israeli occupation authorities demolished 89 Palestinian-owned structures in two weeks.
At least 146 people were displaced by the demolitions, including 83 children. Around 330 others are affected by the destruction of the buildings.
The comprehensive OCHA report said that the Israeli occupation authorities confiscated seven structures, including portable toilets, in the communities of Al-Rakayz, Umm al-Khair and Khirbet al-Tawameen based in southern Al-Khalil-Hebron.
This has affected 80 people and damaged their livelihoods. In occupied East Jerusalem, four of the structures were demolished by the owners themselves in order to avoid fines imposed by the Israelis.
Israel’s widely practiced home demolitions targeting entire families are acts of illegal collective punishment and are a direct violation of international human rights law.
