NABLUS, September 26, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli army on Monday demolished a shack and a car shop in the villages of Beit Dajan and Huwwara, near Nablus in the north of the West Bank, claiming they were built without a permit, according to local sources.

Nasser Abu Jish, mayor of Beit Dajan, told WAFA that two Israeli bulldozers accompanied by a military escort broke into the village and proceeded to demolish a shack used to keep animals.

Soldiers also demolished a car-dismantling shop in the village of Huwwara, also under the pretext of construction without a permit.

Both villagers are located in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli military control where Palestinians are not allowed to build or develop.

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 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinian territory (OCHA).

The vast majority of these demolitions were carried out on the ground 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 had said.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) explained 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,” it had said.

M.N./M.A.