WEST BANK, (PIC)
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) persist in carrying out home demolition operations against Palestinian houses in the West Bank and Jerusalem under various pretexts as part of the Israeli ethnic cleansing policy against Palestinians.
The IOF destroys Palestinian homes and property either in retaliation to the families of resistance fighters or for the purpose of displacing them from their homes and lands and for settlement expansion.
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, the IOF carried out 21 demolition operations in one day, including homes in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and 1948 Occupied Palestine.
The West Bank
The IOF demolished a house in the village of Bitello, northwest of Ramallah, under the pretext of “lacking a construction permit,” according to Nasr Radwan, head of the Bitello Village Council.
Earlier this week, the IOF handed out eight demolition notices to Palestinian homeowners in the village of Khallet al-Daba in Misafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil, and two notices to two other homes in the village of al-Mufaqara in the same area.
On Tuesday, the IOF also demolished three Palestinian homes in the towns of Marah Mualla and Jourat Al-Shama near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, for “lacking a construction permit”.
Under the same pretext, the IOF demolished a home housing 10 people in Farsh al-Hawa neighborhood in al-Khalil Governorate which was knocked down despite having a construction permit from Al-Khalil Municipality, which was unrecognized by Israeli occupation authorities because it was located in Area C, the house owner Tamer Abu Aisha elaborated.
On Wednesday, the IOF also razed three homes and other facilities belonging to Al-Hathalin family in Um Al-Khair community, located within Misafer Yatta, south of the city of Al-Khalil.
On the same day, the IOF demolished four houses in Jericho, under the pretext of “unpermitted construction” noting that they had demolished five other houses last Sunday in Jericho and Jordan Valley Governorate.
Jerusalem and 1948 occupied Palestine
In the city of Jerusalem, Israeli municipality demolished on Wednesday a house that is owned by Abu Subeih family in the town of Silwan.
Meanwhile, in the 1948 occupied Palestine, Israeli bulldozers demolished on Wednesday an under-construction house in the city of Kafr Qara under the pretext of lacking a building permit.
Under the same justification Israeli forces had demolished two other houses in the same city on April 16 last year.
Shocking statistics
Data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicate that during 2023, Israeli occupation authorities completely or partially demolished and destroyed about 660 buildings and facilities in the West Bank, including 70 self-demolitions in Jerusalem, in addition to issuing 1,333 demolition orders against Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lacking a construction permit.
Self-demolition means that house owners are forced to demolish their houses on their own after a demolition order is issued by an Israeli court, in order to avoid paying heavy fines if the demolition is implemented by Israeli forces.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of self-demolition operations in Jerusalem alone reached about 700 cases in 2008-2023.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities carried out 47 demolition operations, affecting 66 facilities, including 35 inhabited and five uninhabited homes as well as 15 agricultural and other facilities in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, during the month of last May.
The Israeli occupation authorities prevent construction or land reclamation in Area C, which is subject to Israeli civil, administrative and security control, and constitutes about 60% of the area of the West Bank.
Collective punishment
The policy of demolishing Palestinian homes represents an Israeli methodology that is aimed at imposing collective punishment against the families of resistance fighters, in an attempt to eliminate the Palestinian resistance, which has proven to be a failure over the decades of occupation.
In some cases, the decisions go beyond home demolition to banning any new construction on the site of previously demolished houses, and confiscating lands in other cases.
To codify this policy, the Israeli Supreme Court issued on August 6, 2002, a decision allowing Israeli forces to demolish the homes of Palestinian resistance fighters. This was supported by the highest political and judicial levels in Israel despite running contrary to the Geneva Convention Article 53.
In August last year, Israeli forces blew up the house of the child Muhammad Al-Zalbani in Shuafat refugee camp in Jerusalem, after allegedly stabbing an Israeli officer, which turned out later on that he was killed by another policeman’s gunfire.
“Israel’s punitive demolitions constitute a form of unlawful collective punishment, which amount to a war crime and a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Khuloud Badawi, Campaigner for Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories Affairs at Amnesty International, said.
For its part, Hamas Movement said, in a statement on Wednesday, that Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem “is a crime and an extension of the criminal war against the Palestinian people.”
