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Palestinians say not even caves safe from Israeli bulldozers

Residents of the West Bank village of Farasin are living in fear of displacement after receiving demolition notices for their houses, tents and even caves.
A Palestinian family whose house located in area C of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and was demolished by the military last month, is pictured at the ruins of their home, near the village of Yatta, south of Hebron, on August 10, 2020. - "Area C" is a stretch of land accounting for 60 percent of the West Bank over which Israel has control under the terms of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s. It is extremely difficult for Palestinians to receive building permits from Is

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Ahmed Amarneh, a farmer in the village of Farasin, lives in a state of constant anxiety. He fears the Israeli authorities will demolish the cave enclosure where he and his pregnant wife and young child live. The Israeli Civil Administration had sent him a demolition notice on July 29.

The village, near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, is situated on hills full of ancient caves and ruins — and some aged infrastructure such as a well that is more than 200 years old. Residents still use it for drinking water and livestock.

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