Description

Photos:
Scenes. Published by Maan News
_____

SALFIT (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces demolished three residential barracks and four tents in the village of Deir Ballut, west of Salfit in the central occupied West Bank on Wednesday, displacing a Palestinian family for the second time.

The owner of the structures, Muhammad Shahbir, told Ma’an that Israeli forces served him with demolition orders on Sunday under the pretext that the structures were built in Area C -- the more than 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military and civilian control -- without the difficult-to-obtain Israeli-issued building permits.

Shahbir said the demolitions were “part of the occupation government’s policies to exert pressure on Palestinians and push them towards forcible transfer off their lands.” He called upon all governmental, private and human rights organizations to stand by his family’s side and provide support to “strengthen their determination.”

Shahbir previously explained to Ma’an that his family had moved to the Abu al-Raish area of the village after Israel forcibly expelled them from the Deit Daqla area, further south on Deir Ballut lands, after being told their homes were built too close to Israel's illegal separation wall's route.
The Shahbir family is originally from Hebron, and have been residing in Salfit for the past 45 years, he added.

Israeli authorities have issued numerous demolition orders targeting Palestinian properties in Deir Ballut over the years, under the pretext that they lacked permits required by Israel to build inside Area C.

An analysis conducted by the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem showed that a group of houses slated for demolition in 2007 in Deir Ballut were all located 200 to 300 meters from the planned route of Israel's illegal separation wall.

Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally, and placing them under the constant risk of demolitions at the hands of Israeli forces.

Meanwhile, the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory are more easily given building permits and allowed to expand their homes and properties.

Earlier on Sunday, local sources in the area said Israeli authorities were advancing plans to expand an illegal settlement to be built on on the lands of the Palestinian village of Masha, located just north of Deir Ballut.