On 21 July, on Tuesday, the Israeli armed forces demolished a Palestinian control center for COVID-19 in Hebron, in the West Bank occupied to the south. The verification center is a quarantine center for Palestinians suspected of contracting COVID-19. Construction of the transit service facility was still completed when the Israeli government proceeded to demolition, highlighting the lack of an Israeli building permit.
The owner of the land and cheque facility told Turkish firm Anadolu that before Tuesday’s demolition, the structure had been underway for 3 months. According to Maswadeh, 35, the facility being built is reminiscent of his grandfather, who recently died of COVID-19. The total charge of the structure to date is $250,000.
Maswadeh accused the Israeli government of intentionally conspiring to facilitate the spread of COVID-19 among Palestinians in Hebron. He added that the facility under structure to reduce tension in hospitals in the area, which have already reached their full capacity due to the immediate spread of the virus.
According to several media reports, the Israeli government has not intervened or raised any objections to the structure it paints in recent months. It was only after the final touch of a significant component of the facility that an army order was sent on July 12 asking the owner to avoid any structure on the site.
It was reported that the demolition, the Israeli workers’ corps had confiscated all evidence and other medical devices beforehand.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem reached 10923, with deaths, on 21 July.
Farid al-Atrash, a 44-year-old lawyer and human rights activist living in Hebron, also supported Maswadeh’s concerns and told reporters that “Israel in general is making the procedure for Palestinians fighting this virus more difficult.” He also argued that such measures may be an Israeli tactic to force the Palestinian Authority (AP) to resume bureaucratic and administrative coordination with Israel. The Palestinian Authority had recently severed all ties with Israel after Israel announced plans to annex giant portions of the occupied West Bank, adding all illegal Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley.