Israel approved 19,000 settlement units in Jerusalem in 2016

Israel approved more than 19,000 settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem during 2016, a Palestinian report revealed yesterday.

The report, which was published by the Abdullah Al-Hourani Centre for Studies and Documentation said the approvals came as part of the so-called Greater Jerusalem Project which also saw more than 300 streets renamed in the Old City.

In addition, the report noted that the Israeli tourism ministry had issued a tourism map for the holy city showing tens of Jewish synagogues and Jewish religious and tourism sites but not revealing the location of Islamic and Christian religious and historic sites, a “clear distortion of history”.

Meanwhile, the report said that the Israeli occupation razed about 300 Palestinian facilities, including residential buildings under the pretext that they had no licences.

The Israeli occupation forces, the report said, killed 24 Palestinian citizens from occupied Jerusalem in 2016, including seven children. It noted that most of them were executed at Israeli military checkpoints spread across the holy city.

It also noted that the Israeli occupation arrested 2,029 Jerusalemites in 2016, including 757 children and 79 women.