HEBRON, Monday, November 30, 2020 (WAFA) – The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished the foundation of a house under construction and a well to the north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to WAFA correspondent.
He said that Israeli forces stormed Jabal al-Jumjuma area, located between Halhoul and Sair towns, north of Hebron, where they destroyed a well built to collect rainwater and demolished the foundations of a house in the early stages of construction under the claim they were built without a permit.
In the previous few months, Israeli settlers stormed the same area, which overlooks the bypass road 60, and raised Israeli flags on it as they shouted slogans calling for seizing the entire area.
The settlers’ intrusions into the site were carried out under the protection of Israeli forces, who frequently set up checkpoints leading to the site and fenced it off with barbed wire as a means to deny Palestinians access to their property at the location.
Meanwhile, Halhoul mayor Hijazi Mireb noted that the Israeli occupation authorities have been supporting settlers’ attempts to seize Jabal al-Jumjuma as a means to further fragment the territorial contiguity of Hebron district.
He said the Halhoul and Sair municipalities have cooperated in preparing a road to the site in order to facilitate access of area farmers to their land and to reclaim it.
Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve demographic and territorial 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 and therefore justifies building thousands of housing units for Jews only in the dozens of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
K.F. /M.K.
