JENIN, Monday, November 26, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Monday demolished a Palestinian-owned house in the Mariha village near the northern West Bank town of Yaabad, southwest of Jenin, said a municipal source.

Mayor of Yaabad Samer Abu Baker told WAFA that a large unit of Israeli soldiers, escorting a bulldozer, stormed the village and demolished the home of Bahaa Hamduni, a villager.

The demolition was carried out purportedly for building the house in Area C without obtaining a rarely-granted Israeli permit.

Soldiers reportedly tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement at the nearby Mavo Dotan checkpoint as the demolition process was being carried out.

He said that the Mariha community has been a target for continuous Israeli attacks which aim to displace the villagers through home demolitions and land grab for settlement expansion.

Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

K.T./ K.F.