HEBRON, January 21, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities Thursday razed land and demolished a greenhouse and water well in Beit Ula, a village located northwest of Hebron, according to local sources.

Essa Amleh, coordinator of the Anti-Settlement Commission in the village, told WAFA Israeli troops accompanied by heavy machinery broke into the village and razed the said land for the second time.

The army also demolished a 70-square-meter greenhouse, a water well and a rainwater tank.

The area where the razing and demolishing took place is located near the Israeli segregation wall, which separates parts of the West Bank from Israel.

It is also located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, under complete Israeli control.

Area C makes up 60% of the area of the West Bank, which was temporarily divided into three parts – A, B and C – under the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, signed by Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

Today nearly 300,000 Palestinians live in Area C, while nearly 360,000 Jewish settlers live in 135 settlements and 100 settlement outposts, which are illegal under international law.

According to a report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between 1988 and 2014, Israel’s Civil Administration, the governing body that operates in the West Bank, issued 14,000 demolition orders, of which more than 11,000 are still outstanding and could result in the demolition of up to 13,000 structures owned by Palestinians in Area C, including houses, sheds and animal shelters.

The report found that the planning and zoning regime applied by the Israeli authorities, including the way land is allocated, “made it virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits in most of Area C”.

M.N/M.H