Israel’s settlement expansion and destruction of Palestinian homes have escalated during the current year according to the National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlement.
“As it is almost impossible for the Palestinians in the eastern part of Jerusalem to obtain construction permits from the occupation municipality 166 structures have been demolished since the beginning of the current year” the national bureau said in a report released on Saturday.
These razed structures included 112 apartments and homes as well as 54 commercial stores and warehouses.
Another 750 Palestinian homes tents structures were also removed or razed during the same period in Area C of the West Bank especially in the Jordan Valley.
The national bureau noted that 78 homes in east Jerusalem and 453 others in the West Bank had been razed in 2015 which reflected that Israel escalated its demolition policy in 2016.
On the other hand Israel stepped up its settlement construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank the bureau stated.
This includes a plan to build 181 housing units in Gilo settlement in Occupied Jerusalem and another one to construct a 14-story apartment building for elderly settlers on a vast tract of annexed land in Masaha village of Salfit province.
The Israeli government also recently allowed settlers to establish an illegal outpost in the northern Jordan Valley near another illegal settler community called Givat Salit which was created in 2001.
