JERICHO, August 9, 2018 (WAFA) – An Israeli military bulldozer demolished on Thursday a Palestinian-owned shop in Marj Na‘ja, a village located to the north of West Bank city of Jericho, said WAFA correspondent.

Israeli forces raided the village and cordoned off the area of the shop before a bulldozer demolished it under the pretense of being built without a license.

Located to the north of Jericho city, Marj Na‘ja  has a population of approximately 905 people and set on a total area of 4,872 dunums of Palestinian-owned land, only three percent of which is classified as built-up area, while the remaining 97 percent is classified as C Area, which falls under Israeli civil and military control.

The villagers are originally from the Naqab Desert, from which they were forcibly displaced in the course of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. They mostly depend on agriculture and raising livestock for livelihood.

The village is gripped by a chronic water crisis and forced drought as a result of Israeli control over water sources and settlement construction in the West Bank.

Israel bans Palestinians from digging new wells and repairing old ones, forcing farmers to buy expensive water from the Israeli Water Company, Mekerot.

The Jordan Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C – under full Israeli military control.

K.F./M.K.