Israel approved the construction of 16,716 housing units in 2014

“The Israeli government approved schemes for building 16,716 new housing units in 33 settlements during 2014,” the officer in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, said.

In a press statement issued yesterday, he said the majority of the units were in Jerusalem, followed by Bethlehem and Salfit, stressing that the military orders, which affected thousands of acres of Palestinian land, were mostly either for the purpose of building the Separation Wall or confiscating land.

He explained that, based on these allegations, the Palestinians are prevented from developing their land without a permit issued by the Israeli authorities, where the occupation confiscated 7,304 acres of land in 2014.

He added: “The past year has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of settler violations, where settlers launched 790 attacks on Palestinians and their properties, mostly in Jerusalem with 290 attacks, followed by 132 assaults in Hebron, 130 in Nablus and 107 attacks in Bethlehem.”

Some 10,596 trees and seedlings were uprooted during 2014, in addition to the demolition of 333 Palestinian homes, including 96 in East Jerusalem.

Daghlas stressed that the occupation authorities had issued 18 confiscation orders against Palestinian land either on security grounds or by declaring them as state lands during the year of 2014.