NABLUS, February 9, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Tuesday demolished and removed Palestinian private-owned residential tents and animal barns in Khirbet Tana, a small village to the east of Nablus in the West Bank, according to local sources.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in northern West Bank, told WAFA Israeli troops broke into the village in the morning, before they demolished six animal barns and removed residential tents belonging to Palestinians in the area, under the pretext they were erected without an Israeli permit.

This came only one day after Israeli authorities notified Palestinians in the nearby village of Beita that some 15 Palestinian-owned commercial stores in the village’s vegetable market will be demolished, also for being constructed without an Israeli permit.

The two villages are located within Area C in the West Bank, under complete Israeli military and civil control.

Issuance of construction permits by Israeli authorities for Palestinians in Area C, unlike for Israeli settlers, requires unreasonable fees that most Palestinians cannot afford to pay.

Over the course of 2015, Israel demolished 521 structures in Area C as well as in East Jerusalem, displacing 636 people, according to the UN monitoring group OCHA.

The vast majority of these demolitions were carried out on the grounds of construction without a permit. Between 2010 and 2014, only 1.5 percent of applications for building permits in Area C were approved by Israeli occupation authorities, OCHA adds.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) explains in a special report that “in almost all cases Palestinians have no choice but to build ‘illegally’ as permits are almost impossible to obtain.”

“Many Palestinians have suffered multiple displacements, having lost their homes and livelihoods more than once. Forced displacement has a series of immediate and longer-term physical, socio-economic and psycho-social impacts on Palestinian families.”

M.N/M.H