HEBRON, January 17, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities Sunday ordered Palestinians in al-Mafqra, a small village near Yatta town in Hebron district, to stop the ongoing digging and construction of a water well, and seized work equipment, according to local sources.
Rateb Jabour, who monitors settlement activities in Hebron, said Israeli army patrols broke into the village and ordered workers who were constructing underground water well to stop their works, before they seized the work equipment.
The village is located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, under complete Israeli military and civil control, where Israel imposes strict restrictions on the issuance of construction permits to Palestinians.
Due to the lack of adequate planning and discriminatory allocation of public land, it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in most of Area C, according to OCHA.
Official data obtained by the organization indicated that over 11,000 demolition orders - affecting an estimated 13,000 Palestinian-owned structures, including homes -are currently ‘outstanding’ in Area C of the West Bank.
“These orders heighten the vulnerability of thousands of poor Palestinian households, some of whom are at imminent risk of forcible displacement,” OCHA said in a factsheet released in September 2015.
“Even basic residential and livelihood structures, such as a tent or a fence, require an [Israeli] building permit.”
M.N/M.H
