HEBRON, February 14, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli authorities Sunday notified Palestinians in al-Baqa’a area, east of Hebron, to stop the construction of two homes, under the pretext of construction without an Israeli permit, according to local sources.

WAFA correspondent said staff from the so-called Israeli Civil Administration accompanied by a military escort broke into al-Baqa’a, where they handed local Palestinians a written notification ordering them to stop the ongoing construction of the two homes.

The Israeli military cited construction without a permit as a pretext for the stop-construction order of the two homes, which belong to Nemer Jaber and Hani Jaber, two local Palestinians.

Al-Baqa’a is located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full 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