On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers demolished two under-construction Palestinian homes in Yitma village, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank’s northern part.
Ahmad Snobar, the head of Yitma Village Council, said several army jeeps and two bulldozers invaded the northwestern area of the town after the soldiers isolated it.
Snobar added that the soldiers demolished two under-construction homes, owned by Mohammad Shehada Najjar and his brother Bara’.
He said the army claimed the homes, licensed by the local council, did not receive a permit from the so-called “Civil Administration Office,” the administrative branch of the illegal occupation.
Snobar also said that, in the first half of this year, 2024, the army issued 359 demolition orders targeting various Palestinian structures, in the occupied West Bank.
The orders target 111 structures in Hebron, 73 in Jericho, and 46 in Ramallah; 318 structures have already been demolished since the beginning of the year.
Israel’s home demolition policy is an illegal act of collective punishment that constitutes war crimes and violates various international and human rights treaties, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 for the Protection of civilian persons in times of war, as well as article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued in 1948, and numerous United Nations resolutions.
