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Photo:
Scene. Published by Maan News
Demolition Order. Published by Maan News
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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Israeli authorities delivered a demolition notice, on Wednesday, to a Palestinian resident in the al-Khader village in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem.

Hassan Breijieh, a representative of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee in Bethlehem, said that the Israeli authorities delivered a demolition notice to Samih Ahmad Salah, under the pretext that his house was built without the difficult-to-obtain Israeli permit.

Breijieh mentioned that the house has been home to the Salah family, a family of five, for several years now.

The house measures about 120 square meters and is located in the Khirbet Alya area, south of al-Khader.

Breijieh added that Israel gave the family one week to evacuate their home and empty its contents.

The area of Khirbet Alya is at the opening of the Israeli bypass road known as route 60, which is also by the northern entrance of the illegal Israeli settlement of Efrat.

The Israeli Civil Administration's Higher Planning Council recently approved further expansion of Efrat, which will lead to the seizure of more than 120 dunums (30 acres) of Palestinian land.

The lands in Khirbet Alya are close to an incomplete section of Israel's separation wall south of Bethlehem, and the Palestinians fear Israeli plans to confiscate the lands to complete the wall around Bethlehem.

Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits in Area C are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally.

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, despite living in settlements that violate international law.