An-Najah News -  Israeli occupation forces Wednesday morning demolished two tourist facilities in the northern West Bank district of Nablus, said a municipal source .Israeli occupation forces escorted a bulldozer into the town, where the heavy machinery demolished Maxim Land, which belongs to a town resident.

Sebastia is a small historical town located 11 kilometers to the northwest of Nablus,on a hill with panoramic views across the West Bank and has a population of some 3,000 Palestinians.

A prominent settlement during the Iron Age as well as the Hellenistic and Roman eras, the town embraces a Roman amphitheater, temples, a Byzantine and a crusader churches, dedicated to Saint John the Forerunner, who baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan River, besides to a mosque built in honor of the saint. Christians and Muslims believe the town to be the burial place of the saint.

Israeli occupation has been attempting to take over the town, which has become a site of heated cultural conflict, preventing the Palestinian Authority from conducting restoration works at the site, prohibiting providing tourist services to visitors from around the world, and stealing antiquities from it.

Israeli settlers have repeatedly attacked the town and fenced parts of its antiquities, where they hold religious rituals.