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by IMEMC News
July 16, 2020 5:00 PM

Israeli forces, on Thursday, destroyed two Palestinian-owned homes near Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron city in the southern occupied West Bank, according to a local source.

Rateb Jabour, from the anti-wall, anti-settlements popular committee, told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian-owned homes in the village of Lesfayier, southeast of Masafer Yatta, under the pretext of being built without an Israeli issued permit.

The Palestinian-owned homes are located in Area C of the occupied West Bank, as a result of the Oslo Accords of 1993. The West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C.

According to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem; Area C covers 60% of the West Bank and is home to an estimated 180,000-300,000 Palestinians and to a settler population of at least 325,500 living in 125 settlements and approx. 100 outposts. Israel retains control of security and land-management in Area C and views the area as there to serve its own needs, such as military training, economic interests and settlement development.

Jabour added that the homes were inhabited by 10 Palestinian civilians, noting that the now displaced owners have legal documents to prove their ownership of the lands, which are located close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Yatir.

The Palestinian Information Center added that the buildings belonged to Mahmoud Abu Qubita and his son Ismail.

In the same context, Israeli authorities, on Thursday, delivered halt construction orders to 15 Palestinian-owned houses in the town of Kafr al-Dik, west of the northern West Bank city of Salfit, according to Ibrahim al-Issa, mayor of Kafr al-Dik.

Al-Issa told WAFA that Israeli forces invaded the town and handed the halt stop work orders to the owners of the under-construction homes.

Article 17 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states;

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

See also OCHA Report: West Bank Demolitions and Displacement | June 2020

~ WAFA, PIC, UN