RAMALLAH, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- The continuous expansion of Israeli settlements and demolishment of Palestinian residencies have flared up frustration in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, said Palestinian officials and human rights groups.
Israeli authorities have demolished or confiscated this year at least 421 Palestinian-owned buildings, resulting in the displacement of 592 people in the West Bank, including some 320 children, according to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in July.
This means a 24-percent increase in the number of targeted buildings compared with the same period in 2020.
While the Israeli authorities maintain that demolitions were "necessary" because Palestinians built them "illegally," the Palestinians said Israel rarely approved their building requests in the first place, especially in Area C, which makes up 60 percent of the West Bank.
"The Israeli settlement expansion and its demolition policy against the Palestinian properties mean that Israel is not ready to reach a political solution with the Palestinians," Omar Awadallah, an official from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, told Xinhua.
He added that the Palestinians are running out of hope to establish their independent State of Palestine on the borders of 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, expressing his disappointment with "the international community."
While the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority appeals to international organizations such as the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court to pressure Israel, it is worried that some major countries will favor Israel unfairly based on their political agenda, the official said.
Moreover, some Palestinian officials think that "verbal support" from the international community is far from enough to protect the rights of the Palestinians.
"The international community has taken about 700 decisions on the Palestinian issue. Unfortunately, none of them has been implemented," Mohammed al-Shalaldeh, Palestinian justice minister, told Xinhua.
The official pointed out that most UN resolutions against Israel are mere recommendations.
He said the continuous U.S. support of Israel impairs the principles of international law and the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions, calling on the United Nations not to deal with duplicity in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"The Palestinians in East Jerusalem live in ghettos surrounded by settlements on all sides," said Ziad Hammouri, head of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, a non-government human rights group.
Hammouri said that about 20,000 Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem are under threat of demolition, adding that the battle in the city is an "existential struggle."
He stressed that the Israeli measures amount to "war crimes that the Israeli officials must be punished for," criticizing the international community for its "inability" to implement UN resolutions related to the Palestinian issue. Enditem
