Israeli army destroys US-funded public park in West Bank
AFP
Date: 02-22-06
NABLUS, West Bank (AFP) - The Israeli army, using a bulldozer, destroyed a US-funded public park, including a children's playground and swimming pool, in a West Bank village, witnesses and officials said.
The bulldozer, protected by a force of Israeli soldiers, demolished the park in Azzun, close to the northern town of Qalqilya, on the grounds that it had been built without permission of the Israeli authorities in the occupied territory.
Construction work on the park had begun in November last year and was almost completed, the mayor of Azzun, Ihssan Abdellatif, told AFP.
He said that the project, which cost around 120,000 dollars, had been financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
"I can confirm that the park that was destroyed today was funded by USAID," a spokeswoman for the agency, Anna-Maija Litvak, told AFP on Wednesday.
The spokeswoman added that USAID had contributed around 80,000 dollars towards the cost.
No immediate reaction was available from the Israeli army which regularly demolishes buildings that it says have been constructed without authorisation.
The army also destroyed two other houses built "without permission" in two other villages in the Qalqilya area on Wednesday, according to Palestinian security sources.
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