Israeli bulldozers demolished two Palestinian-owned homes in the Qalansuwa city in central Israel, under armed security by Israeli police and special forces.

During a meeting held by the High Follow Up Committee for Arab Citizens in Israel, engineer Nadi Al-Taya said two houses belonging to the Warda family had been levelled and the demolition of 50 more was underway.

He said Israel delays or rejects building licenses submitted by Palestinian Arab citizens forcing them to build without permission. Al-Taya said that Israel does this in order to the Palestinian population while encouraging Jewish expansionism.

Head of the Follow Up Committee Mohamed Baraka said: “The crime which took place this morning [demolition of the two houses] is an extension of the crimes of the Israeli authorities in Umm Al-Fahm, Ar’ara and Jajoulia.”

He added: “We must bring all our efforts together to face these challenges… We have no weapons and we cannot win the legal battles as the law was laid down to facilitate uprooting the Arab citizens.”

Meanwhile, Head of the Municipality of Qalansawa Abdel-Baset Salama said: “We were in contact with specialists in the issue of planning and construction regarding the two houses, but the racist [Israeli] courts turned down all out proposals to iron out the issue.”

He added: “The two houses were part of the city’s plan and we had documents for this. We started the procedures to get the licenses, but we were surprised with demolition orders.”

The Wardeh family mentioned that Israeli regime authorities gave no prior notice of the demolition.

Nearly all Palestinian applications for building permits are denied by the Israeli authorities, forcing communities to build illegally.