Israeli forces demolish new Palestinian home in occupied West Bank

Israeli army forces demolished a new Palestinian home near Tulkarem city in the occupied West Bank on Monday, witnesses said.

Army forces forcibly evacuated Palestinian residents from the house in the town of Far'un, south of Tulkarem, and bulldozers razed it for allegedly lacking a building permit, they added.

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.

The home demolition comes amid an ongoing Israeli offensive in the northern West Bank, killing over 70 people and displacing thousands since January.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank, where at least 945 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 others injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Health Ministry.

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.