BETHLEHEM, The Israeli occupation army ordered today the demolition of two rooms annexed to a home in the village of al-Walaja, in the occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, according to a local source.

Arafat Abu Rezq, the owner of the house, told WAFA that he was notified by the occupation army that he has a deadline of 15 days to demolish the two rooms which he recently annexed to his house, under the pretext of lacking an Israeli building permit.

He said the army told him that in the event that he didn’t demolish the two rooms, army would come back after the deadline and demolish the two rooms at his own expense.

Israel denies planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in occupied East Jerusalem and in 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.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Israeli occupation authorities demolished, seized or forced people to demolish 96 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during June 2022.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency