Israel order construction halt of Palestinian houses

Israeli forces Tuesday ordered the halt of the construction of two Palestinian-owned houses in Beit Awwa town, southwest of Hebron, said local sources.

Israeli forces and staff from the so-called Civil Administration broke into the town and ordered Shadi Suleiman Sweiti and Rami Salameh Sweiti to halt the construction of their two houses.

The stop-construction orders were delivered under the pretext that the houses were built without the difficult-to-obtain Israeli permits.

Israeli refuses to permit virtually any Palestinian construction in Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule, forcing residents to build without obtaining rarely-granted permits to provide shelters for their families.

In contrast, Israel much more easily gives the estimated 550,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.

The “Civil Administration” is the name Israel gives to the body administering its military occupation of the West Bank.