Israel issues 18 stop work orders to Palestinian families in West Bank 

Israeli occupation forces issued 18 stop work orders for homes being built by a group of Palestinians in the village of Qarawat Bani Hassan, based in the northern occupied West Bank.

According to the mayor of the village, Ibrahim Assi, the Israeli forces handed several town residents notices ordering them to stop the construction works on incompletely inhabited houses under the pretext that they did not have building permits.

He told Wafa news agency that the notices also ordered the stop of excavation works in the eastern and southern entrances of the village.

This comes a week after the Israeli occupation authorities delivered ten stop work orders to families in the central occupied West Bank region of Salfit.

OPINION: How Israel targets Palestinian society through family separation

Neighbourhoods in Salfit have been subject to increasing Israeli theft of land in favour of expanding illegal Israeli settlements.

Palestinians are rarely granted Israeli issued building permits, as the Occupation State tightens its grip over Area C of the Occupied West Bank.

With growing families, therefore, Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank and Jerusalem either have to extend their homes or build new ones without licences. This makes them subject to demolition by the occupation.

Meanwhile, over 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in violation of international law.