Israeli occupation forces demolished 28 Palestinian houses in Al-Khail, making dozens homeless

Additional reporting By Awad Al Rajoub, IOL Palestine correspondent

Al-KHALIL, February 2 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Citing lack of building permits, Israeli occupation forces razed on Sunday, February 2, 28 houses belonging to Palestinian residents in the West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

This is the biggest demolition of private Palestinian buildings since January 21 when 62 shops built without planning permission were leveled down.

Israeli bulldozers, backed up by a large number of forces, knocked down the houses since early hours of the day, leaving dozens of their inhabitants homeless, Palestinian sources in the city said.

The demolitions came as part of the wide-scale incursion Hot Winter, a move aimed at cracking down on Palestinian fighters allegedly responsible for killing more than 20 Israeli soldiers and settlers in recent months.

"The Israeli army had cooked up pretexts to destroy the houses of the Palestinians who are now left homeless" complained Al-Khalil Mayor Mustafa Al-Natsha to IslamOnline, against a background of rough cold conditions gripping the Palestinian areas.

"The unrelenting four-day Israeli blockade and tight curfew of the city doubled the suffering of all of the 160,000 inhabitants, most of them began complaining of lack of milk for their babies and other food supplies" he lamented. 

Meanwhile, Israeli sources justified the decision to raze these Palestinian houses under the pretext that they are close to Jewish settlements, fire was shot at Israeli forces from them, being built without permits or they are not inhabited.

The General Palestinian Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Territories condemned the Israeli move, calling on international humanitarian agencies for immediate intervention to pressure the Israeli government to halt such oppressive practices.

"The occupation army tore down the Palestinians' houses without even allowing their evacuation," Abdel-Hadi Hintish, a member of the Committee, told IslamOnline.

"Why the Palestinians are prevented from building new houses to meet their growing numbers while Jewish settlers illegally seize thousands of acres of Palestinian land in impunity," he added. 

A spokeswoman for the Israeli administration claimed the owners of the houses had been given advance warning that the houses close to the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba were illegal.

Saeb Erakat, Palestinian chief negotiator and local government minister, hit out angrily at the demolitions, calling them a war crime and a precursor to new settlement activity.

"Destroying this amount of houses is a war crime. It is a political act," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"They are trying to create a new reality on the ground to increase new settlement activity."

It was not Israel's business to get involved with building permits, he said, adding it an issue which should be dealt with by the Palestinian municipality of Hebron.

Erakat called on the Middle East quartet, which comprises representatives of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, to pressure Israel to stop new settlement activity while the Middle East roadmap was on hold.

Stone Clashes

Palestinian boys emerge from a smoke screen made by an Israeli tank after throwing stones during clashes

In another related development, a 14-year-old Palestinian boy was injured by Israeli gunfire in clashes that erupted when youths pelted Israeli forces with stones and petrol bombs in the refugee camp of Jenin, residents said.

The clashes were sparked by an Israeli incursion into Jenin, the scene of frequent clashes since the army reoccupied almost the entire West Bank in June 2002, as troops abducted two Palestinian fighters.

One of them was identified as Mahmud Zafar, 35, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an off-shoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The other was Imad Abu Ihlal, 40, from the Palestinian security services.

After the attack the hardline settlers demanded that Palestinian houses in the sector be destroyed.