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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces demolished a sheep barn belonging to a Palestinian in the village of Rujeib east of Nablus on Wednesday only hours after notifying the owner of the order.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that Israeli bulldozers arrived in the village and destroyed the 270-square meter steel structure, claiming it was not licensed by construction authorities.

He said that the structure belonged to local Alaa al-Din Riyad, and he was only given a few hours notice between when he was alerted of the demolition order and the structure's destruction.

Israeli authorities regularly demolish Palestinian structures under the pretext that owners have failed to acquire the proper building permits.

A study published by Bimkom, an Israeli urban planners' organization, found that in the 2000s around 95 percent of all Palestinian requests for construction permits in Area C were rejected. Similar studies conducted since suggest the figure has remained steady.

Israel destroyed 591 Palestinian properties in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2014, displacing 1,177 people, according to UNOCHA.

It has demolished at least 27,000 Palestinian homes and structures since occupying the West Bank in 1967, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.