Israeli forces today demolished a carwash in the village of al-Lebban al-Sharqiya, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to witnesses.

They told Safa that a number of Israeli military jeeps escorted a bulldozer to the entrance of the village, where the heavy machinery tore down the facility purportedly for being built without a license.

Owner of the demolished facility was identified as Khalil Oweis.

Israel demolishes Palestinian houses and structures almost on a daily basis as a means to achieve “demographic control” of the occupied territories.

Israel denies 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, which 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 existing colonial settlements is necessary to accommodate the “natural growth” of settlers. Therefore, it much more easily gives the over 700,000 Jewish Israeli settlers there building permits and provides them with roads, electricity, water and sewage systems that remain inaccessible to many neighboring Palestinians.