(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) The Israeli government has given the go-ahead for construction of 16,716 new housing units in 33 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in 2014, according to a Palestinian official.
Ghassan Daghlas, the Palestinian Authority official monitoring settlement activity in the North of the West Bank, said in a statement that most of the settler homes were slated for construction in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Salfit.
He said military orders had been issued for expropriation of 7,304 dunums of so-called "state land", mostly for building the West Bank separation wall or for the settlement expansion scheme.
Daghlas also pointed to a marked rise in settler and military assaults and violations against Palestinian property last year, which, he said, largely occurred in occupied East Jerusalem, where some 290 anti-Arab violations occurred, followed by Hebron, Nablus and Bethlehem.
Among the assaults, he added, was the uprooting of about 10,600 West Bank trees or saplings, arson attacks and destruction of property as well as the demolition of 333 Palestinian homes, 96 of which in East Jerusalem.
"Israel last year issued 18 land appropriation orders, either under security pretexts or by declaring them state-owned lands. Israel has via these orders confiscated 7,263 dunums owned by Palestinians, all to expand settlements or (random) settler outposts and for the general Israeli expansion enterprise", added Daghlas.
All West Bank settlements are illegal under international law and have been the focus of censure by world countries, including the United States.
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