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HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces issued demolition orders to two Palestinian families in a southern West Bank village on Thursday, a local official said.

Hashim Tmeizi, the mayor of the village of Idhna west of Hebron, told Ma'an that Israeli soldiers issued demolition orders to Hamza Muhammad Zghayyar and Hijazi Abd al-Fattah Zghayyar.

The houses slated for demolition were built more than five years ago, Tmeizi said, adding that a total of 13 people would become homeless if the buildings were demolished.

Israeli forces have recently issued hundreds of demolition and stop-work orders to Idhna residents, he said.

He said two-thirds of the town was considered Area C, or under full Israeli control.

Israel confiscated most of what originally made up Idhna in 1948, and took even more land in recent years, when the separation wall was built, Tmeizi said.

Less than 1 percent of Area C has been planned for Palestinian development, while some 135 settlements and over 100 outposts have been built in the same area.

Under the Oslo Accords, Area C was to be gradually transferred to Palestinian control within five years. But Israel has refused to withdraw its forces from the territory, citing security concerns and the absence of a final peace agreement.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank forms a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.