Israel 'demolished 970 facilities, seized 53 sq km in West Bank, Jerusalem in 2024'

Israel has demolished 970 Palestinian homes and establishments, issued demolition orders to 765 others and seized 53,055 dunums (53 square kilometres) in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2024, a Palestinian report has revealed.

The report issued by the Land Research Centre said the Israeli occupation army and settlers uprooted and damaged 59,163 trees – 52,373 of which were completely destroyed, closed 955 roads and entrances in various areas of the West Bank, including placing 76 iron gates outside villages and towns.

It also revealed that the Israeli occupation displaced 38 Palestinian Bedouin communities, including 355 families consisting of 2,209 individuals, and established 25 illegal pastoral settlement outposts, threatening thousands more dunams with confiscation.

In 2024, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich issued a decision to expropriate Palestinian land south of Hebron, while seven settlement outposts were established on land classified in ‘Area B’ of the occupied West Bank, five of them in Bethlehem Wilderness lands, a nature reserve according to the Oslo Agreement and its annexes.

READ: Nearly 3,000 Israeli attacks reported against Palestinian Bedouin communities in 2024: Rights group