Days Of Palestine – Bethlehem

Israeli forces demolished early today a house and two greenhouses and razed a road in the village of al-Walaja, northwest of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, said a local activist.

Ibrahim Awadallah, an activist in al-Walaja, told WAFA that Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer as they raided two areas in the village known as Ain Jawaizeh and Khalet al-Hoor and embarked on demolishing a two-story house that belonged to Mustafa Abed Rabbo and two greenhouses belonging to Halimeh Araj under the pretext they were built without permit.

He added that the bulldozer has also destroyed an access road to Ain Jawaizeh, whose land was confiscated by Israel for the construction of the separation barrier and Israeli settlements of Har Gilo and Gilo and made part of the Israeli municipal lines of West Jerusalem.

Awadallah said owners of 180 houses in Ain Jawaizeh have received demolition orders also under the pretext of unpermitted construction.

Clashes erupted between youth and Israeli forces following the latter’s incursion into the village. Soldiers fired teargas, stun grenades and rubber-coated steel rounds at the youths but without causing any bodily harm, said witnesses.

Israel does not allow Palestinian construction in most of al-Walaja, which is originally part of Beit Jala in the Bethlehem district, but particularly in Ain Jawaizeh area of the village, which it has annexed after the 1967 occupation of the West Bank.