Israel destroyed 172,900 homes, expelled 1.3m Palestinians since the Nakba

The Israeli occupation has demolished about 172,900 Palestinian homes, displaced 1,324,000 Palestinians and confiscated 19 million dunums (19,000 square kilometres) of the land of historical Palestine “to bring 5 million Zionist immigrant from around the globe to replace the indigenous people.”

Marking the World Habitat Day yesterday, the Land Research Centre in Jerusalem said: “During the Nakba 1948, the Israeli occupation demolished 125,000 Palestinian houses and displaced 800,000 Palestinians, about 47 per cent of the Palestinians.”

The centre stated that the continuous Israeli attacks led to the occupation of about 78 per cent of historical Palestine and demolished about 4,500 houses, rendering 30,000 Palestinians homeless between 1950 and 2021.

During the 1967 war, Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian lands, including the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, the centre said, stating that 5,500 Palestinian houses were demolished during the war and 200,000 Palestinians were displaced.

“Israeli demolition policies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are still going on,” the organisation said. “Israeli bulldozers demolished 11,900 Palestinian houses, 7,440 of which are in East Jerusalem, between 1967 and 2021. Thus, 73,000 Palestinians lost their homes, 47,220 are in Jerusalem alone.”

“During the same period, Israeli air strikes demolished 21,000 Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip – the most vicious attacks were during wars in 2008/9, 2012, 2014 and 2021, leaving 189,000 Gazans homeless, most of them slept or are still sleeping at schools or with relatives, and some still live in tents.”

READ: Family of 9 homeless after Israel forces them to demolish their Jerusalem home