Hundreds of homes and facilities in the West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip were demolished by the Israeli occupation during the current year in an attempt to undermine the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and uproot them from it. The international community continues to express its concern about the practices of the occupation without taking any action to stop it.
In a statement to SANA reporter, Amir Daoud, head of the Documentation Department in the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, said: The year 2022 was difficult and harsh for the Palestinians, as the occupation demolished 850 homes and commercial, industrial and agricultural facilities in the West Bank, causing the displacement of hundreds of families or depriving them of their source of livelihood. He indicated that the demolitions and bulldozing operations affected entire neighborhoods in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Al-Khalil, and the villages of the Jordan Valley, Nablus, and Salfit. The occupation also delivered notices to demolish 1,150 homes in the West Bank.
The scene in occupied Al-Quds is no different from the rest of the cities of the West Bank. As part of the occupation’s plans to Judaize the city, the occupation bulldozers demolished 211 homes and facilities, most of them in the towns of Silwan, Al-Isawiya, and Beit Hanina, spokesman for the people of Silwan, Fakhri Abu Diab said. He indicated that the occupation threatens to demolish 22 thousand homes in Al-Quds, which constitutes a third of the city’s homes.
Abu Diab noted that the occupation is waging a demographic war on the Palestinians in Al-Quds by demolishing homes and facilities with the aim of making the demographic balance tilt in favor of the settlers, stressing that locals of Al-Quds face demolitions and displacement by steadfastness on their land and defending it.
For his part, human rights researcher Hussein Hammad said: The occupation, during its aggression on the Gaza Strip last August, completely destroyed 29 houses and almost completely 167 houses on the heads of their inhabitants, in a crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions. He pointed out that owners of the demolished houses are still suffering from the bitterness of homelessness and oppression, while awaiting the stalled reconstruction process due to the failure of donor countries to implement their financial pledges.
For his part, the head of the People’s Committee for Resisting the Wall and Settlements, Salah Al-Khawaja, noted that the demolition of homes in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank comes within the framework of the occupation’s systematic plans to displace Palestinians and expand settlements to implement colonial annexation plans. He warned of the danger of these plans which the Israeli occupation is implementing in light of the international community’s inaction and disregard for the ethnic cleansing and displacement operations it practices against the Palestinian people.
Inas abdulkareem