By Palestine Chronicle Staff
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian Territories (OCHA) revealed that Israel destroyed 70 Palestinians structures in the West Bank in the first week of 2017 alone, making some 160 Palestinians homeless.
OCHA noted, “The demolitions were carried out on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued building permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. Most families have remained in their communities in very precarious conditions.
OCHA added, “2016 witnessed the demolition or requisition of 1,093 Palestinian-owned structures across the West Bank, displacing almost 1,600 people and affecting the livelihoods of over 7,000. These are the largest such figures recorded by us since 2009, when we started to document this phenomenon systematically.”
UN OCHA: Israel issued record number of home demolitions in 2016, doubling 2016 total & displacing 1593 Palestinians https://t.co/GiGTmWpSGm
— Omar Shakir (@OmarSShakir) January 4, 2017
OCHA continued, “The destruction of property in this context, along with other factors, contributes to the generation of a coercive environment pressuring residents to leave.”
The organization cited dozens of examples of demolitions, which took place in the governorates of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nabuls.
OCHA concluded that the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian structures in the West Bank in 2016 was the highest since OCHA started documenting these demolitions in 2009.
(PalestineChronicle.com)
