A new report has revealed that Israeli forces demolished about 1,032 Palestinian homes and buildings in the occupied cities of West Bank and East al-Quds in 2021.
According to a report published by Land Research Center of the Arab Studies Society on Sunday, 361 Palestinian-owned structures were demolished during that period, displacing 1,834 Palestinians, including 954 children, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
The report also pointed out that Israeli forces have demolished 671 facilities providing various services for more than 5,455 Palestinians, including 2,600 children and 1,800 women.
It further said 93 wells that supplied water for 1,800 dunums of Palestinian agricultural land were demolished last year, in addition to 216 barns housing more than 16,400 heads of sheep.
Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds, claiming that the structures have been built without permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. They also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the costs of the demolition.
Israel has already occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand new illegal settler units in various areas in the West Bank.
The Tel Aviv regime also plans to force out Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East al-Quds in in an attempt to replace them with settlers.
That plan sparked days of fighting between the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas and the Israeli regime in May last year.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
Israeli forces killed 5 Palestinians, demolished 60 homes since start of 2022
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have killed at least five Palestinians and arrested more than 1,738 others, including children and women, in the West Bank and al-Quds since the beginning of the year, as the regime’s oppression of Palestinians continues unabated, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
Among the five Palestinians killed was veteran Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was fatally shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank on May 11.
Akleh, a well-known Palestinian journalist for the Qatar-based and Arabic-language Al Jazeera television news network, was killed while covering an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
In video footage from the incident circulated widely online, Abu Akleh could be seen wearing a blue flak jacket marked with the word “PRESS” when being shot by Israeli troops, exposing the gruesome nature of the daylight murder.
Her tragic death sent shockwaves across the region, drawing global condemnation against the Israeli regime.
Another Palestinian killed since the start of the year was 57-year-old Fahmi Hamad, who died of tear gas inhalation suffered during an Israeli raid on the Qalandiya refugee camp on January 24.
Karim Jamal Qawasmi, from al-Quds at-Tur neighborhood, was also killed after allegedly carrying out a stabbing attack at the gates of al-Aqsa Mosque on March 5, while Palestinian Yamin Javal was murdered during confrontations in the town of Abu Dis in East al-Quds on March 7.
Also on May 14, 23-year-old Palestinian Walid al-Sharif, from the town of Beit Hanina in al-Quds, succumbed to critical wounds he sustained in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the third Friday of Ramadan.
Since the start of the holy month of Ramadan, the regime in Tel Aviv has escalated its crackdown on Palestinians by arresting a number of Palestinians in occupied East al-Quds, desecrating al-Aqsa mosque, issuing new restrictions on the Palestinian people’s entry into the mosque, and ordering the demolition of Palestinian homes and agricultural facilities.
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