Occupation authorities demolish house in Nablus-governorate village

NABLUS: Israeli occupation authorities today demolished a Palestinian house in Furush Beit Dajan village, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to a local official. Head of Furush Beit Dajan Village Council, Azzem Hajj Mohammad, said that the occupation forces escorted a bulldozer to the village, where the heavy machinery tore down a 100-square-meter house belonging to a villager. He added that the occupation forces had notified the villager of their intention to carry out the demolition citing the classification of the area as Area C as a pretext. The occupation authorities demolish Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve 'demographic control' of the occupied territories. Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families. In contrast, Israel argues that building within existing colonies is necessary to accommodate the 'natural growth' of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the estimated 700,000 Jewish Israeli colonists there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians. Source: Palestine news and Information Agency – WAFA