Israeli occupation demolishes houses, displaces 10-member family in Masafer Yatta area

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, Jul.25, (ST)-Today, the Israeli occupation authorities tore down a Palestinian-owned house and other structures in Birin village, south of Hebron, according to a local activist.

Fouad al-Amour, a local activist, said that Israeli occupation forces broke into the village as an army bulldozer proceeded to demolish a 70-square-meter house belonging to a local resident.

He added that the bulldozer also demolished stone terraces and a pond used to collect rainwater for agricultural purposes in the same area.

Amour warned that the demolitions in this area are intended to dislocate the local population in order to make way for settlement construction.

According to the Land Research Center, the Israeli occupation has frequently issued military stop-construction and demolition orders against various residential and agricultural structures and dismantled barns in the locality, citing the lack of rarely-issued construction permits as a pretext.

In December 2017, the Israeli occupation delivered stop-construction orders to the locality’s sole clinic and building intended to serve as a primary school for the community’s 60 children

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation forces demolished a Palestinian-owned house in Umm Qassa community in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, displacing 10 people, according to a local activist.

Rateb al-Jabour, a local activist, said that an Israeli occupation army force escorted a bulldozer into the southern West Bank community, located to the northeast of Yatta, where the heavy machinery tore down a residence belonging to a local resident displacing his 10-member family.

He added that the occupation army also removed and seized a residential tent belonging to another resident in Khirbet al-Buweib, east of Yatta city.

Basma Qaddour