The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today that in the past two weeks alone, Israeli forces destroyed 41 Palestinian-owned structures in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, displacing 38 people and affecting 121 others.
OCHA said in its biweekly Protection of Civilians Report that the demolitions took place under the pretext that it was built without the nearly-impossible to obtain Israeli permit.
Out of these demolitions, 37 were in East Jerusalem and four in Area C. On April 29th, Israeli authorities demolished 31 structures in multiple neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, marking the highest number of structures demolished in a single day in East Jerusalem, since OCHA began systematically monitoring demolitions in 2009.
On April 25, the Israeli authorities demolished a home in Az-Zawiya village in the West Bank on punitive grounds, displacing a family of seven, including five children, the report continued.
The home belonged to the family of a 19-year-old Palestinian who was accused of killing an Israeli soldier and an Israeli settler, and injuring another soldier, near Ariel Israeli settlement on March 17, 2019. The Palestinian was subsequently killed by Israeli forces in a separate incident.
This was the fifth such demolition since the beginning of 2019 compared to six in 2018 and nine in 2017.
On Israeli settlers’ violence, UN-OCHA said thirteen attacks were carried out by settlers during the same period, resulting in the injury of three Palestinians and damage to Palestinian property across the West Bank.
Since the beginning of 2019, the bi-weekly average of settler attacks resulting in Palestinian casualties or property damage has witnessed a 40 and 133 per cent increase, compared to the biweekly average of 2018 and 2017.
Kh.R
