Salfit: Israeli occupying forces on Tuesday halted the construction of several Palestinians' houses to the west of Bruqin town, west of the occupied West Bank city of Salfit, according to local sources. They reported that the occupation forces stormed the al-Baqaan area, west of the town, and handed eight Palestinians, including seven brothers, military notices, ordering them to stop the construction of their houses, purportedly for being built without licenses.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve 'demographic control' of the occupied territories. The Israeli authorities deny planning permits for Palestinians to build on their own land or to extend existing houses to accommodate natural growth, particularly in Jerusalem and Area C. This area 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 argues that building within colonies is necessary to accommodate the 'natural growth' of colonists. Consequently, it much more easily grants the estimated 1 million Jewish Israeli colonists 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. Soldiers in this administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel, whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, and whether an Israeli colonist can take over that land, among others.