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Demolitions in West Bank
Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian family’s home in the village of Ad-Deirat, near Yatta east of Hebron, on Tuesday, citing the lack of a building permit, and members of the family and other Palestinians rushed to remove as many belongings as possible from the house owned by Osama Issa Musaif.
The Middle East Monitor said Israeli forces were deployed around the area as construction equipment carried out the demolition, and tensions flared between Palestinian residents and Israeli troops at the scene.
The same report said Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes and structures in the occupied West Bank, claiming they were built without permits, while Palestinian and Israeli rights groups say Israeli authorities impose strict restrictions that prevent Palestinians from obtaining building permits, especially in areas classified as Area C.
It added that under the Oslo II Accord, signed in 1995, Area C falls under full Israeli control and makes up about 60% of the West Bank, and that UN data says demolitions last year alone displaced more than 1,700 Palestinians.
Deterrence and self-demolition
WAFA reported that Israeli occupation forces delivered at dawn on Thursday to the family of the detained physician Aysar Barghouthi in the Batn al-Hawa neighborhood of Ramallah a demolition notice for their residential apartment, after the apartment was mapped on January 16 in preparation for its demolition.
WAFA said Israel uses punitive demolition of Palestinian family homes as a deterrent against those accused of involvement in attacks on Israelis, and that human rights groups have widely condemned the policy as "collective punishment" and a "war crime and crime against humanity."
In occupied East Jerusalem, Chronique de Palestine described Basema Dabash in the Sur Baher neighborhood, saying she and her husband Raed were forced to demolish their own home in February after Israeli authorities served them with a demolition order in 2014.
The same article quoted Basema, 51, saying, "We were forced to begin the demolition ourselves, to avoid the municipality imposing fees that can reach 100,000 shekels ($32,000)," and it said the family finished demolishing the eight-person home but a 45,000-shekel ($14,600) fine arrived and would continue to be imposed in installments through 2029.
Roads, notices, and rights
WAFA said Israeli occupation forces on Tuesday issued demolition notices for ten homes, agricultural structures, and a park in Khirbet Humsa and Khirbet Suba, south of Hebron, to open a road serving a new illegal colony.
“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday that discrimination and segregation carried out by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank were intensifying, resembling a form of 'apartheid system”
It reported that the forces handed out demolition notices for the homes, agricultural rooms, and the park in the two areas to construct a road linking the colonial road No. 35 with the Tarousa area, where colonists have begun establishing a new illegal colony.
L'essentiel reported that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said discrimination and segregation carried out by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank were intensifying, resembling a form of "apartheid system," and quoted Volker Türk saying, "We are witnessing a systematic choking of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank."
The same UN-focused report said the High Commissioner estimated the situation had led to "a particularly grave form of racial discrimination and segregation, resembling the type of apartheid system we have already known," and it warned that the Palestinians continue to be subjected to massive land confiscations and a deprivation of access to resources, leading to dispossession of their lands and their homes.
