ISRAEL DEMOLISHED 390 PALESTINIAN HOMES IN 2013: UN

     New York, 6 Rabi’ul Akhir 1435/7 February 2014 (MINA) – The United Nations says Israel demolished 390 Palestinian homes in the West Bank’s Jordan Valley in 2013, which resulted in the displacement of nearly 600 Palestinians.

      The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs released the figures on Thursday, saying the numbers have doubled in comparison with the year before.

     The agency said the demolition figure shows an increase from 172 the year before and that the number of Palestinians whose houses were razed by Israeli forces stood at 279 in 2012, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

      Also on Thursday, the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, urged Israel to overturn its decision to allow 558 new settlement units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

      Elsewhere, near the village of Qusra, Israeli settlers, some of them masked and armed, threatened Palestinian farmers working on their land to leave.

      According to witnesses Israeli forces then arrived and fired tear gas to disperse the farmers.

     The international community has repeatedly condemned Israel over its settlement expansions. Israel has turned a deaf ear to repeated international calls for an end to its construction activities on the occupied Palestinian lands.

       Israeli settlements are illegal under the Geneva Conventions, which ban constructions in occupied territories.

      The Palestinians demand that East al-Quds (Jerusalem) be their capital and that Israel recognize borders based on the 1967 lines, which existed before the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the West Bank and East al-Quds.

      Tel Aviv, however, refuses to return to the 1967 borders or discuss the issue of al-Quds, and insists on keeping the illegal settlements it has constructed inside the occupied Palestinian territories. (T/P09/E01).

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).