Israeli army demolishes 5 more Palestinian homes in occupied West Bank

The Israeli army demolished five more Palestinian homes on Thursday in the West Bank amid ongoing military escalation in the occupied territory.

According to witnesses, army forces, escorted by bulldozers, raided the town of al-Rihiya, south of Hebron city in the southern West Bank, and razed three homes there for the alleged lack of building permits.

The Israeli army also issued demolition orders for 20 other homes in the same town, witnesses said.

A fourth home was also razed in the town of Shufa, southeast of Tulkarem city, for the lack of a construction permit.

Israel widely uses the pretext of a lack of construction permits 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% of the West Bank.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions-Area A, B, and C.

Early on Thursday, the Israeli army also blew up the home of a Palestinian detainee in the eastern neighborhood of Tulkarem, accusing him of involvement in a shooting attack in 2023.

The Israeli authorities maintain a policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers, a practice widely condemned as a form of collective punishment prohibited under international law, as it often displaces entire families.

Tension has been high in the West Bank since the Israeli war on Gaza, killing at least 947 Palestinians and injuring over 7,000 others since October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.