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Israeli forces demolished a handful of structures on Wednesday morning in Khirbet Tana, a village northeast of the West Bank city of Nablus. Among the destroyed buildings were houses, barns and the only school in the area according to a local official.

Munadil Hanani, a member of the local committee of Beit Furik near Nablus told Ma’an News Agency that Israeli soldiers accompanied bulldozers to Khirbet Tana on the outskirts of Beit Furik and flattened the town.

Included in the demolition was the only school in Khirbet Tana. The building consisted of moving caravans and was donated by a European organization.

The school served 26 local children from grades one to four, Hanani added.

Tomorrow, the 275 people living in Khirbet Tana will have to entirely rebuild their village, save for an ancient shrine converted into a mosque to serve the residents. The Israeli army destroyed every single other building.

In the occupied West Bank, demolitions are a common occurrence and part of an overall plan to expel Palestinian communities in order for Israel to annex it.

Last week Israeli human rights group Yesh Din published a new position paper alleging that Israel is increasingly upping its efforts to annex the West Bank.

“Over the past three and a half years the Government Of Israel has been gradually absolving itself of its duty to act within international law, and extricating itself from its duty to protect the property of the protected Palestinian population. This is a policy of de-facto annexation, while Israel refrains from officially annexing the West Bank, a step which would require granting Palestinian residents of the West Bank citizenship and equal rights,” the paper reads in part.

At the beginning of February, Israeli authorities demolished 23 structures belonging to Palestinians in the south Hebron Hills, in one of the largest such single demolitions in recent memory.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem also issued a warning last month, alleging Israeli authorities "have stepped up efforts to expel Palestinian communities from vast areas in the West Bank."

Israel justifies its widespread and indiscriminate demolitions in the West Bank saying the houses are built illegally. However, the civil administration which controls the majority of the West Bank almost never issues building permits to Palestinians. Therefore, according to B’Tselem, "residents have no choice but to build their homes without permits and live in constant fear of their homes and livelihoods being destroyed.”

"Effectively, the state forces people to subsist in inhuman living conditions, without basic amenities and with no hope or chance for improving the situation."

The West Bank was split into three distinctions as a result of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s—Area A, B and C, however, were supposed to be transitional categorizations of land in the interest of establishing sovereign Palestinian territory. Today, Israel still controls much of the West Bank under military rule.

B’Tselem explains that the recent wave of home demolitions was intended to displace Palestinians from Area C into Area A (under Palestinian control), in what amounts to a “de-facto Israeli annexation of Area C."

"Despite significant international attention to this reality, to date, no effective measures have been taken to put an end to it,” the report concludes. “Which effectively means the international community is green-lighting continued human rights violations and the forcible transfer of civilians inside the occupied territory.”

Forcible transfer of civilians in occupied territory is a grave violation of international law.