Israeli authorities demolished or seized 24 Palestinian-owned structures across Area C of the West Bank using the pretext of the lack of building permits, displacing 34 people and otherwise affecting almost 70, said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory in its Protection of Civilians report covering the period between 5 and 18 January.

The UN agency added that the Israeli forces carried out 161 search-and-arrest operations and arrested 157 Palestinians across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and 79 Palestinians, including 14 children, were injured across the West Bank in clashes with Israeli forces during the reporting period.

Most of those wounded (59) sustained their injuries in protests against the establishment of two settlement outposts near Al Mughayyir and Deir Jarir villages near Ramallah or against settlement activities near Kafr Qaddum near Qalqiliya.

Fifty-five of the injured people were treated for inhaling tear gas, 14 were shot with live ammunition, eight were hit by rubber bullets, and the remaining ones were physically assaulted.

Moreover, Israeli forces uprooted about 1,370 Palestinian-owned trees in Deir Ballut near Salfit in the north of the West Bank and Beit Ummar during the reporting period on grounds that the land had been declared ‘state land’.

In 2020, the Israeli authorities uprooted an estimated 4,164 Palestinian trees, nearly 60 percent more than in 2019.

They also confiscated 237 sheep near Wadi Fuqin near Bethlehem in the south of the West Bank, claiming they were grazing in an area declared as a nature reserve. The herder was issued a fine of $15,200.

Source : Safa