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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces uprooted trees from village lands in Nahhalin near Bethlehem on Wednesday, witnesses said.

Israeli forces told villagers the lands were owned by Israel. They said Palestinians were prohibited from reaching them or planting on them.

An inquiry to the Israeli civil affairs unit in the West Bank was not immediately returned.

A day earlier Israeli authorities demolished three buildings and a water cistern in the south Hebron hills, an international peace group said.

Forces bulldozed a two-story house in al-Deirat village owned by Mohammad Musa Mohammad Abu Aram, before flattening a sheep stable, Operation Dove said.

The officials then moved to nearby Jawwaya village, where they demolished a house and water cistern for rainfall, owned Mahmud Ahmed Nasser Nawaja, the Italian peace organization said.

In the first six months of 2011, Israeli authorities demolished 342 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C, displacing a total of 656 Palestinians, including 351 children -- almost five times as many demolitions and people displaced as during the first half of 2010, according to UN agency OCHA.

From 2000 to 2007, the Civil Administration approved 5 percent of the applications for building permits submitted by Palestinians in Area C.
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