Israeli occupation escalates house demolition in the West Bank to serve its annexation plan: report

The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting settlements said in its weekly report issued on Saturday that since the beginning of this year, the Israeli occupation authorities have demolished 184 Palestinian houses and facilities in the West Bank, most of them in the northern Jordan valley, leading to the displacement of more than 300 Palestinians, including 160 children.

According to the report, the occupation authorities demolished about 650 Palestinian houses and facilities in the West Bank last year, leading to the displacement of more than 800 Palestinians within the frame work of the occupation’s plan to annex more West Bank areas.

 The  occupation also forced four Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in the occupied city of Al-Quds to evacuate their houses and gave these houses to Israeli settlers, the report said,pointing out that displacement threatens dozens of Palestinian families in this neighborhood every day as a result of the occupation’s arbitrary measures.

The report added that the occupation forces demolished a house in the town of Yatta in Al-Khalil city, and delivered notifications about demolishing 15 houses in the town of Yatma in Nablus. The occupation forces also seized 19 dunums of Palestinian land in the village of Azzun in Qalqilya and razed wide areas of agricultural lands in Wadi Abdul Rahman area, to the north of Salfit city and in Khirbet al-Hadidiyeh area, to the east of Tubas city with the aim of expanding settlement building activities.

In addition, the report said, the occupation forces uprooted a thousand forest trees in Ainoun area in Tubas.

The report went on to say  that the Israeli settlers intensified their attacks on the West Bank cities and towns  under the protection of the occupation forces. The settlers stormed Bab al-Rahma cemetery and al-Aqsa Mosque squares in occupied Al-Quds as well as the towns of Qusra, Asira al-Qibliyeh and Al-Laban in Nablus, Wasilet al-Dhahr in Jenin, Tarms’ayya and Kafr Malik in Ramallah. They also attacked the Palestinians’ houses and properties, prevented farmers from reaching their lands in the town of Bidya, to the west of Salfit, and seized wide areas of Palestinian land in Khirbet Jabaris in the northern Jordan Valley.

Hamda Mustafa