RAMALLAH, July 27, 2016 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Wednesday strongly condemned Israel‘s recent demolition of 11 houses in the village of Qalandiya, north of Jerusalem.

"The purpose of Israel‘s demolitions is to uproot the largest number of Palestinians in order to make room for more illegal settlements," Hamdallah said in a statement. "This is against international law and against every standard of human decency."

Eleven Palestinian homes were razed to the ground overnight Tuesday, under the pretext of construction without Israeli-issued permission.

“Securing a building permit from Israel is almost impossible for Palestinians living in Area C, according to OCHA; only 33 building permits have been approved out of 2,020 applications submitted between 2010 and 2014,” the statement added.

 "When the bulldozers came, we told the Israelis that we had papers to prove we were in the application process, but they didn‘t care," said Mahmoud Awadallah, who witnessed the demolition of his brother‘s house.

"[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu‘s talk about peace is hollow as long as he keeps destroying Palestinian homes and continues the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem and Area C," said Jamal Dajani, Director of Strategic Communications & Media for the Prime Minister.

This year alone, Netanyahu‘s government has flattened 660 houses and other structures in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, leaving almost a thousand Palestinian homeless, many of them children.

M.N