NABLUS, Tuesday, September 29, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today demolished a shack at the entrance of Beita town, south of Nablus city, according to a local source.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement construction in the northern West Bank, confirmed that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer to the entrance of the town, where the heavy machinery demolished a 500-metersqaure shack belonging to Jamal Khader.

Meanwhile, witnesses confirmed that an Israeli military bulldozer demolished a gas station and a vegetables display stand to the south of Qalanidia military checkpoint, north of Jerusalem.

Owners of the demolished structures were identified as residents of Qalandia refugee camp.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve “demographic control” of the occupied territories.

Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel argues that building within existing colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

K.T./ K.F.