According to the dailyHaaretz, Tel Avivwas now demolishing 49 Palestinian residences in so-called Area C every week, compared to nine in 2015.
The demolitions have rendered more than 480 Palestinians, including 220 children, homeless so far this year, it added.
As many as 104 European-funded homes have been razed to the ground in 2016, the UNOffice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported, saying the rate almost equaled that for the entire 2015.
Area C covers 360,000 hectares (890,000 acres) of land, equal to 60 percent of the West Banks area. An estimated 298,000 Palestinians are living in the area, together with 341,000 Israelis in 135 settlements and about 100 outposts.
Israel has earmarked less than one percent of the terrain for Palestinian development, in comparison with 70 percent toits construction of illegal settlements.
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Palestinians check the rubble of their house after it was demolished by Israeli authorities in the village of Jeftlek in the West Bank, Feb. 10, 2016. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]Commenting on the circumstances surrounding the demolitions, UN official Robert Pipersaid, Most of the demolitions in the West Bank take place on the spurious legal grounds that Palestinians do not possess building permits.
Butin Area C, official Israeli figures indicate only 1.5 percent of Palestinian permit applications are approved in any case. So what legal options are left for a law-abiding Palestinian? he added.
Piper is the UNCoordinator for Humanitarian Assistance and Development Aid for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Some Palestinians, meanwhile, quip that Israel is destroying their homes even as their dates of birth go back to before 1948, when Israel claimed existence following the large-scale occupation of Arab territories.
My mother gave birth to me in this cave in 1936, said Radwan Qassem of the Khirbet Tana Village in northern West Bank. Im older than Israel and it does not allow me to live here.
By Press TV
