A Palestinian house and commercial store demolished

in the village of Burqin

Jenin district

February 2004

Location and population

The village of Burqin is located 4 km to the west of the city of Jenin. The village has the population of 4500 citizens.

The village area

It has the total area of 40000 dunum, of which only 861 dunum serve as built up area.

Type of violation

The demolition of a house owned by Mr. Lutfi Abdallah khalof and a commercial store owned by Mr. Omer Faiz Ash Shaib.

Reasons behind demolitions

The house of Mr. Lutfi khalof was demolished by an army bulldozer on February 5^th, 2004 upon suspicions that there were some wanted Palestinians inside, however, no wanted people were found at the end of the operation. The owner of the house told LRC field worker that despite his confirmations to the attacking army force of no existence of any wanted persons inside his house, the army went on with their plans and destroyed his house after evacuating all occupants.

Regarding the commercial store of Mr. Omer As Shayeb, it was destroyed on December 1^st, 2003 after the arrest of one of his sons for security pretexts.

The two families didn’t receive any notices in advance of demolition or any written demolition orders. The house and the store were demolished without allowing the victimized families to evacuate contents and furniture.

The following table gives more information about these two demolitions:

Victim’s name	No. of floors	Area	No. of rooms	No. of Fam. members
Lutfi Abdallah Khalof	2	140 / floor	4 / floor	15
Omer Faiz Ash Shaib	One store	12 M²	One store	6
Total		292		21

The two destroyed structures are located in Al Jabriat road of the eastern quarter of the village.

Estimated losses

In addition to the destruction of his two - floor house with all contents and furniture, Mr. Lutfi informed LRC field worker that during the demolition process, 6 fruitful olive trees were uprooted, a 70 cubic meter cistern and a cesspool attached to the house were destroyed as well.