The Israeli occupation authorities has displaced 50 Palestinians including 23 children and the livelihoods of more than 600 others were affected in home demolitions during the past two weeks.
This came in a biweekly protection of civilians report released by United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory.
From May 2 to 15, Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced people to demolish 42 structures in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank.
Israeli authorities regularly demolish homes built on their own land by Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank if they do not have Israeli building permits.
The catch, according to a UN report, is that such permits are “almost impossible” to obtain and the result is a chronic housing shortage.
The OCHA report also highlighted that since the beginning of 2023, 10 homes and one building related to agriculture have been demolished for punitive reasons, compared to 14 in all of 2022 and three in 2021.
In addition to the demolitions, the report said that from the beginning of 2023 through May 15, Israeli forces killed 108 Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, more than double the number of deaths of 51 in the same period in 2022.
Twelve other Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces as they allegedly attempted to attack them in the West Bank.
The ongoing demolitions and violence in the West Bank have alarmed human rights organizations and the international community, who have called for an end to the occupation and a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War in 1967. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move not recognized by the international community.
