Israel demolishes more Palestinian homes as illegal settlers rampage in occupied West Bank

The Israel occupation forces demolished three more Palestinian homes in the West Bank on Tuesday, Anadolu has reported. Witnesses said that two houses in which ten Palestinians lived were razed to the ground in Burqin, west of Salfit city, while a third house was demolished in Wadi Fukin, west of Bethlehem, apparently because they lacked building permits.

Israel uses the lack of permits as a pretext to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C in the occupied West Bank, which is under Israel’s administrative and security control, and constitutes around 60 per cent of the Palestinian territory. Such permits are notoriously almost impossible and very expensive for Palestinians to obtain.

Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers set fire to a wedding hall in the town of Bidya, west of Salfit city, said witnesses. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, settlers also sprayed racist anti-Arab graffiti on walls in the town, including “Death to Arabs”.

Home demolitions and settler violence against Palestinians have escalated in the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023. At least 945 Palestinians have since been killed and over 7,000 others injured in the occupied territory.

In July last year, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land to be illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

READ: Israel bans access to director of Hebron mosque for 15 days