AL-KHALIL (WAFA/Anadolu) – Zionist occupation forces on Monday demolished a mosque in Khilet Taha, a neighborhood in the town of Dura to the southwest of Al-Khalil, according to a WAFA correspondent.
Forces, accompanied by heavy machinery, stormed the said area and tore down a 100-square -meter mosque.
Khilet Taha area is threatened with seizure by the occupation forces; which seek to take over around 3000 dunums of Palestinian residents’ land in favor of illegal settlement expansion.
Meanwhile, the occupying regime troops demolished the Arab village of al-Araqeeb for the 210th time on Monday.
According to a statement made to an Anadolu correspondent by Aziz al-Turi, a member of the Local Committee for the Defence of al-Araqeeb, “The Israeli forces stormed the village of al-Araqeeb and demolished its homes for the 210th time.”
Al-Turi reiterated that the people “will rebuild their village, as they always do.”
The Zionist regime authorities demolished the village houses the last time in the middle of last month.
Anadolu correspondent reported that about twenty-two families live in the al-Araqeeb homes built of wood, plastic and tin.
The regime authorities demolished the village for the first time in July 2010, and have been demolishing it ever since, every time the residents rebuild it.
The occupying regime does not recognize al-Araqeeb, but its residents insist on remaining on their land, despite the repeated demolition of their homes.
According to Zochrot, an organization of Israeli Jewish and Arab activists which documents the Palestinian Nakba of 1948, al-Araqeeb was built for the first time during the Ottoman period on land purchased by the residents.
The organization says that the authorities are working to expel the residents of the village in order to control their land. It notes that the regime does not recognize dozens of other villages in the Negev region, and refuses to provide any public services to them.