Israel demolishes four Palestinian houses in occupied West Bank 

The Israeli occupation authorities demolished several Palestinian houses this morning in the village of Al-Jiftlik near the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, Wafa news agency has reported.

According to the head of the village council, Ahmad Abu Ghanem, soldiers stormed into the village and proceeded to demolish four homes with a bulldozer. The destruction left several families homeless.

In recent years, Israel has demolished hundreds of homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem on the grounds that they lack a building permit. However, Palestinians are rarely granted such permits by the settler-colonial state.

With growing families, therefore, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories either have to extend their homes or build new ones without permits. This makes them subject to demolition by the Israelis. When a demolition notice is served on the homeowners, they are given the option of knocking down their houses themselves or paying the Israeli occupation forces to do it.

While this ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is ongoing, more than 600,000 Israelis live in settlements for Jews only across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. All of Israel’s settlements are built in violation of international law, under which they are classed as a war crime, as is the movement of citizens into an occupied territory.

READ: Israel document shows settlers’ role in ousting Palestinians from West Bank