JENIN, Israeli forces today sabotaged a commercial facility located at the eastern entrance of the town of Ya‘bad, west of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to local sources.

Head of Ya‘bad Municipality, Samer Abu Baker, told WAFA that the Israeli soldiers raided the town entrance and destroyed a commercial kiosk belonging to Mohammad Atatra.

He added that this was the fourth time for Atatra’s kiosk to be torn down.

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 the estimated 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