Israel Threatens Demolition of Palestinian Structures in Occupied West Bank

Israel Threatens Demolition of Palestinian Structures in Occupied West Bank

Israeli bulldozer demolishing a Palestinian residential structure in Khirbet Jenbah in Masafer Yatta, 22 March 2016. Photo: Nasser Nawaj'ah, B'Tselem.

The Israeli occupation authorities on Monday notified the demolition of Palestinian structures in Masafer Yatta and Birin village, south of the West Bank.

Coordinator of the Protection and Resistance Committees in Masafer Yatta, Fouad al-Amour, told WAFA news agency that Israeli forces told residents in Birin, Fakhit and Khallet al-Dabi hamlets that tents, tin-sheet structures, sheds, and two caravans are going to be removed and demolished.

The soldiers also took photos for the recently-rehabilitated road linking Khallet al-Dabi to Masafer Yatta in addition to three water wells of a nature reserve in the area apparently in order to demolish them.

Masafer Yatta is a collection of almost 19 hamlets which rely heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood. They are located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military ordered Qarawat Bani Hassan town, south of the northern West Bank city of Salfit, to stop work and construction in an area of the town known as Dar al-Darb, claiming it is classified as Area C, according to the town’s mayor Hassan Assi.

He told WAFA that the municipality was building a stone chain wall in order to build a park in that area when they were ordered to stop the work.

Dar al-Darb is a four-dunum archeological area believed to go back to the Roman period and there is fear that Israeli settlers intend to take it over.

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