IOF demolish mosque in occupied West Bank

• 

The Israeli occupation forces demolished a Palestinian mosque and a shack in the occupied West Bank, southeast of Beit Lahm, under the pretext that the mosque did not have a building permit, media reported on Sunday.

The IOF stormed the Umm Said area located between Beit Fajjar and Marah Mualla in the occupied West Bank, demolishing the mosque build on land owned by a Palestinian resident, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

🔴 بحجة عدم الترخيص.. جيش الاحتلال يهدم مُصلَّى قرب قرية مراح معلا جنوب بيت لحم مساء اليوم pic.twitter.com/IXkVuHlYie

— ساحات 🇵🇸 (@Sa7atPlBreaking) March 5, 2023

Furthermore, WAFA said the shack, ran as an awnings-selling business, had been torn down in Beit Tamar.

This comes weeks after independent United Nations experts called on the international community to take decisive measures against the Israeli occupation's systemic and arbitrary demolition of Palestinian buildings in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli occupation, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), demolished 132 Palestinian structures, including 34 residential and 15 donor-funded structures, across 38 communities in the occupied West Bank in January alone, a 135% year-on-year.

The Israeli occupation forces stormed on January 23 the Palestinian town of Isawiyyeh and the Khan Al-Ahmar community in occupied Al-Quds, where they demolished a greenhouse.

The storming came days before the Israeli Supreme Court issued a final decision regarding the Israeli government's quest to displace the village's residents. 

The right-wing extremist's proposition came during a cabinet session in protest against a settlement outpost illegally established by Israeli settlers southeast of Nablus, which they called "Or ha-Hayim" or "The Light of Life", getting evacuated. Ben-Gvir demanded that Khan Al-Ahmar be demolished immediately since illegal Israeli settlers were evicted from the outpost.

Meanwhile, far-right Israeli Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir requested that all "illegal" buildings be ruled against equally.

The right-wing extremist's proposition came during a cabinet session in protest against a settlement outpost illegally established by Israeli settlers southeast of Nablus, which they called "Or ha-Hayim" or "The Light of Life", getting evacuated. Ben-Gvir demanded that Khan Al-Ahmar be demolished immediately since illegal Israeli settlers were evicted from the outpost.

The occupation declaring its intention to displace the people of Khan Al-Ahmar in occupied Al-Quds is nothing new, and it is part of the policy of ethnic cleansing.

Back in 2010, the so-called Israeli Civil Administration issued an order to demolish any and all facilities and homes in Khan Al-Ahmar, which saw Palestinians resorting to Israeli courts to appeal against the decision throughout the past few years.

Throughout that period, Palestinians would obtain court orders to postpone the demolitions until the Israeli Supreme Court ratified in May 2018 the Israeli Civil Administration's order to displace the Palestinian people and demolish Arab Bedouin communities.

Khan Al-Ahmar is among various areas targeted by the Israeli occupation to execute its E1 settlement project, through which "Tel Aviv" seeks to usurp Palestinian territories extending from the East of Al-Quds through the Dead Sea, aimed at voiding the area of any Palestinian presence as part of a bigger project that entails splitting the West Bank into two while isolating occupied Al-Quds from the occupied West Bank.

The village acts as an eastern gate to occupied Al-Quds, and the settlement plan failing there means the occupation would have failed to divide the occupied West Bank into cantos, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission explained in January.

Furthermore, the Israeli occupation has a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian martyrs who die while executing operations against the IOF.

It is noteworthy that "Israel's" policy of demolishing martyr's homes is a form of collective punishment, and is a war crime under international law.

Read more: Palestinian heroism in 2022: operations, resistance, martyrdom