On Wednesday morning before dawn, Israeli troops invaded several parts of the northern West Bank near Nablus and destroyed a Palestinian home and a tourism center. This follows the destruction earlier on Tuesday of a Palestinian-owned agricultural barn south of Nablus.
In the pre-dawn invasion Wednesday, Israeli troops entered the Furush Beit Dajan area in the Jordan Valley, and used armored D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers to destroy the home of local Palestinian resident Ibrahim Benniya.
Troops also used an armored bulldozer to destroy an 8-dunam square tourist area known as the Maxim Land Resort, as well as confiscating archaeological remains from the land. This took place in the areas of Zawata and Sebastia.
According to Ghassan Douglas, the Palestinian Authority official in charge of addressing Israeli settlements and violations of Palestinian sovereignty, the Israeli military invaded the areas in the northern West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday morning and began extensive demolitions, including carrying out sabotage and bulldozing operations inside the archaeological site in Sebastia, removing and confiscating a tourist establishment, and stealing archaeological stones from the surrounding area.
This follows the demolition of an agricultural barn owned by a Palestinian farmer from the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
The barn belonged to local resident Marwan Abu Kotob, who depends on agricultural work for income. The loss of the barn will cause tremendous economic hardship for Abu Kotob and his family.
Israeli military officials claimed the demolitions were carried out due to ‘lack of permits’, but the Israeli military forces that have ruled the West Bank with martial law since 1967 have refused to issue permits to Palestinian landowners to build on their own land since that time.
