Israel demolishes Palestinian structures in Ramallah

Israeli forces yesterday demolished several commercial buildings and levelled Palestinian lands in Ramallah’s western town of Ni’lin.

Eyewitnesses told Quds Press that the occupation forces protected the bulldozers while they were demolishing Palestinian structures near the Ni’lin military checkpoint to the west of Ramallah.

According to local sources, the forces razed lands that were being used by Palestinian workers for parking while they are working in Israel.

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Palestinian workers from various parts of the West Bank use the Ni’lin military checkpoint to cross into the occupied territories.

The demolition was claimed by the Israeli forces to have been carried out under the pretext that the buildings were located close to an Israeli military post.

The occupation authorities recently demolished 18 Palestinian commercial establishments in Ni’lin, claiming that they were located near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Sefer and that they posed a threat to the military tower in the area.

Israel demolished a record 1,093 structures in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2016, displacing 1,601 Palestinians, which the UN said were the highest number of demolitions and displacement figures on record, according to Palestine’s Ma’an News Agency.