News - Middle East: The Israeli regime has torn down yet another Palestinian house in the occupied West Bank under the pretext of lacking a building permit.

The under-construction one-story house was razed by an Israeli bulldozer on Thursday in the city of Beit Jala, west of Bethlehem.

“A large force of the occupation army, accompanied by bulldozers, stormed the Bir Aouneh area in Beit Jala, and demolished their one-story house, which includes four apartments, with a total area of   400 square meters, under the pretext of not having a permit,” Wissam Zarina, son of the owner of the house told Palestine's official Wafa news agency.

He said that this is the second time that Israeli forces have demolished their house; they have brought down their six-story house earlier in the same area.

Israeli forces have, on numerous occasions, issued demolition and construction halt notices and flattened Palestinian houses in the area, accusing the owners of lacking building permits.

According to a United Nations study, such permits are “virtually impossible” to obtain.

Some owners have been left with no choice but to raze their homes themselves to avoid being charged thousands of shekels for the demolition costs.

Critics say the demolitions are political in nature and part of the Israeli regime’s policy of dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

The Israeli regime occupied the West Bank, including the western part of the holy city of al-Quds, in 1967. It later annexed East al-Quds, which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israelis occupy over 250 illegal settlements that have been built across the West Bank since the 1967 occupation.

The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.