Israeli occupation forces ordered today a halt on the construction of two homes in the village of al-Khader, near the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Hasan Burajiya, a local anti-settlements activist, told WAFA that a large Israeli army force raided the village and ordered two local Palestinian citizens to stop the ongoing construction of their two homes, under the pretext that they are being built without an Israeli permit. The two were identified as Nader Salah and Mohammad Mahmoud Salah.

The occupation forces also banned workers who were working at one of the two homes from completing the construction works, and briefly withheld the working equipment.

The area where the construction is ordered to stop is located in an area classified as Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, where Israel rarely issues construction permits to Palestinians, forcing many people to build without permits.

Israel refuses to allow Palestinian development of any kind in Area C, which makes up over 60 percent of the total area of the occupied West Bank, and often demolishes what Palestinians build despite the Israeli ban.