Israeli army demolishes new Palestinian home in occupied West Bank

By Awad al-Rujoub and Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army demolished a new Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, a local official said.

Army forces raided the town of Yatma south of Nablus and razed a two-story house there for alleged lack of a building permit, municipal chief Ahmad Snowbar told Anadolu.

Israel widely uses the pretext of lack of construction permits to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C in the occupied West Bank, which constitutes around 60% of its space.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Area A, B, and C.

Area C is under Israel’s administrative and security control until a final status agreement is reached with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities brought down a mosque in the Arab village of Umm Al-Hiran in the Negev area in southern Israel, according to Knesset member Yousef Atawneh.

Video footage shared on social media showed police forces moving into the village with a military bulldozers demolishing the structure.

Israeli authorities have given residents until Nov. 24 to evacuate the village on the ground that it was built without a license.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, local authorities plan to build a Jewish town in the site of the village.

“This shows the true racist and fascist face of this Israeli government (of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), which views Arab citizens as enemies and invaders,” Atawneh said in a statement.

In the Negev area, there are 35 villages that are unrecognized by the Israeli authorities, whose residents were expelled from their homes in 1948. Any building activity there is considered as illegal and is subject to demolition.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar