The Israeli occupation army ordered on Saturday the demolition of three Palestinian buildings currently under construction in the village of al-Meniya, in the occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, according to a local source.

Hasan Breijieh, a Palestinian Authority official in charge of monitoring the Israeli settlement activity in the Bethlehem area, told WAFA news agency that Abed Rabbo Kawazbeh, a local Palestinian citizen, was notified by the occupation army that he has 96 hours to demolish three buildings that are still in the construction stage under the pretext of not having an Israeli building permit.

He said each of the three buildings consists of two floors, with an area of 500 square meters each.

Israel denies construction permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem and 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.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Israeli occupation authorities so far this year demolished, forced people to demolish, or seized 118 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including the 26 in East Jerusalem.