NABLUS, Israeli forces Monday morning demolished several structures in the village of Deir Sharaf, west of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources.

Chairman of the Northwest Nablus Joint Service Council, Mohammad Azem, said that Israeli force escorted a bulldozer into the village, where the heavy machinery tore down several commercial and agricultural structures that were given a demolition order in May.

Israel demolishes 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 colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency