QALQILIYA (Ma’an) — The Israeli Civil Administration on Wednesday delivered five home demolition orders to the town of Jit in eastern Qaliqliya claiming the buildings were built without the necessary permission.Locals said that Israeli forces accompanied the Civil Administration officers into the town to deliver the notices.Four of the five houses were identified as belonging to Majdi Lutfi Yamin, Iyad Hamdan Sakhen, Muhammad Ahmad Yamin and Malik Maher Yamin.According to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, Jit has been subjected to “numerous Israeli confiscations” for the construction of Israeli settlements and the Israeli separation wall, both considered illegal under international law.Just 14 percent of the village of Jit is classified as Area B, while the remaining 86 percent is Area C, where building permits must be approved by the Israeli Civil Administration for construction to take place, under the 1993 Oslo Accords.As a result of rarely-approved permits, Palestinian residents are often forced to build structures without permits, which are liable to be torn down later by Israeli forces.Since the Oslo Accords were signed, Israel has issued more than 14,600 demolition orders, according to Israeli planning rights watchdog Bimkom.Bimkom architect Alon Cohen Lifschitz estimates there are an average of two structures per order, meaning that over the past two decades, Israel has issued demolition notices for nearly 30,000 Palestinian-owned structures.Since 1996, Israel has granted only a few hundred building permits for Palestinian structures. From 2000-2014, only 206 building permits were issued, Bimkom adds.
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