A report issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday said that Israel killed 107 Palestinians and injured 3247 others in 2016.
The OCHA office said in its report monitoring the Israeli violations in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2016 that in 2015 169 Palestinians were killed and 15477 were injured.
The report published days ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem reported a 37% decline in the number of the Palestinian martyrs who fell due to conflict-related violence in the occupied Palestinian territories in 2016 and an 80% decline in the number of injuries compared to 2015.
It stressed that the “occupation policies and practices remain the key cause of humanitarian needs in the occupied Palestinian territories” noting that the internal Palestinian political division is a serious contributing factor to the humanitarian crisis.
It pointed to the continued displacement of the Palestinians adding that 47200 people including children (9000 families) remained displaced until the end of 2016.
According to the OCHA the Israeli occupation authorities demolished 1094 buildings over claims that they lacked construction permits including 29 houses that were punitively demolished or sealed following attacks allegedly carried out by Palestinians against Israeli targets.
The OCHA report warned that thousands of Palestinians in Area C (which is under Israeli control according to the Oslo Agreement signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993) and in East Jerusalem were exposed to forcible transfer policies “due to a coercive environment generated by the Israeli policies and practices”.
The UN agency revealed that the Gaza Strip isolation has been worsened due to the continued closure of the Rafah crossing by the Egyptian authorities pointing out that the crossing was open for 44 days in 2016 compared to 32 days in 2015.
Meanwhile the OCHA noted that it recorded 572 movement obstacles to the Palestinians’ movement in December 2016 in addition to 110 others in the Israeli-controlled area in al-Khalil city.
The OCHA highlighted that tight restrictions were imposed on the movement of humanitarian organizations’ staff into and out of Gaza with Israel rejecting 31% of permit applications to enter or exit Gaza.
The number of the incidents of impeding the movement of the staff of the United Nations and other international organizations in the West Bank was 211 in 2016 compared to 183 incidents in 2015 it said.
OCHA also recorded that the Israeli authorities demolished and confiscated 300 donor-funded buildings worth 730000 dollars that were provided as humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
In the same context more than 100 similar buildings received demolition stop-work or evacuation orders in addition to verbal warnings.
The OCHA head David Carden said that the crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories at its heart is due to the lack of protection for the Palestinian civilians and the absence of accountability for the violations of the international law.
