Description

JENIN (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Wednesday morning demolished a house and a sheep barn in Bartaa al-Sharqiya, a village near the separation wall in the northern West Bank district of Jenin, a local council member said.

Tawfiq Qabaha told Ma'an that a number of Israeli military vehicles escorted bulldozers into the village in the early morning and began demolishing a 200-square-meter house and an adjacent sheep barn.

The official said they were told the demolition was the result of failing to secure a building permit.

Israeli forces closed the southern entrance of the village declaring the area a closed military zone.

The house was recently completed by owner Ahmad Omar Qabaha, who build the home for his brother Mustafa, ahead of his wedding.

Ahmad had been given a demolition notice last week, in addition to three others over the past three years, Qabaha said.

Over the last two months, 10 houses have been demolished in Bartaa al-Sharqiya under the pretext of being built without a permit.

The village, inside the Bartaa enclave, is one of eight communities encircled by the separation wall. The area falls in what Israel defines as the Seam Zone, a quasi-military zone in which construction is forbidden without prior coordination with Israeli authorities, which is near-impossible to secure.

According to the UN, Around 7,500 Palestinians who reside in the Seam Zone require special permits to continue living in their own homes; another 23,000 will be isolated upon the wall's completion.



Print