Israel makes another family homeless

The Israeli military has leveled two houses, accommodating 13 members of a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank, claiming it had found no residents there.

The demolition went ahead on Thursday, leaving the al-Shawamreh household to trawl through the debris for their belongings, AFP reported. The family reportedly had nine children.

“These specific houses were built illegally and there was no one living there, so that’s why we destroyed them,” a spokesman for the Israeli military claimed.

The Palestinian Authority says the destruction, which according to the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions have rendered 130 Palestinians homeless so far this year, torpedo the prospects of peace.

Tel Aviv has, meanwhile, refused to stop expanding the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, causing the indirect talks come to a standstill.