The Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission said that the Israeli occupation authorities and extremist settlers carried out 5,238 attacks on Palestinian citizens and their property in the occupied West Bank during the first half of 2022.
In a report issued on Monday, the commission indicated that these attacks ranged from vandalizing and bulldozing lands, uprooting trees, seizing property, imposing closures, erecting checkpoints and inflicting bodily injuries on Palestinian citizens.
The commission explained that these attacks were concentrated in the Bethlehem governorate with 946 attacks, followed by the Ramallah governorate with 909 attacks, and then the Jerusalem governorate with 799 attacks.
The head of the commission, Muayyad Shaaban, said that since the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, the occupation has seized 2,380 km2 of the area of the West Bank, including Jerusalem, has established more than 343 settlements and outposts, and has officially recognized about 176 settlements, which include the settlements it established in East Jerusalem.
Shaaban pointed out that there are 176 outposts that the occupation government doesn’t recognize in public but supports in secret, and that the occupation authorities have established 144 other outposts, including 25 industrial sites, 94 military sites, and 25 tourist and service sites, with the aim of serving its settlement project.
Shaaban noted that from the beginning of 2022 until the end of last June, the occupation authorities approved 46 plans to expand settlements or establish new ones in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and postponed the approval of 66 other plans.
Shaaban added that in the first half of 2022, settlers established five outposts on Palestinian citizens' lands, in the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus and Salfit.
He stated that, during the period monitored by the report, the occupation authorities confiscated a total of 22,394 dunums under various names (declaring nature reserves, expropriation orders, and seizure orders), of which 21,959 dunums were designated as a nature reserve from the lands of Jerusalem and Jericho.
Also, 59,581 dunams were confiscated through two expropriation orders announced by the occupation authorities in Nablus and Jerusalem, and 3 orders were issued to seize an area of 375.4 dunums under the name of "security purposes" in Bethlehem, Hebron and Tubas.
According to the report, in the first half of this year, the occupation authorities issued 572 demolition notices to Palestinian facilities under the pretext of non-licensing, most of which were concentrated in the Hebron governorate (146 notifications) and the Bethlehem governorate (136 notifications).
The occupation authorities carried out a total of 147 demolitions, during which they demolished 295 facilities in the West Bank and Jerusalem, which affected 445 people, including 212 children.
The report stated that most of the demolitions were concentrated in the Jerusalem governorate with 57 demolitions, followed by the Hebron governorate with 28.
Shaaban warned of the danger of the recent wave of demolitions and notifications, which are escalating dramatically, stressing the need for concerted efforts to confront this campaign.
During the first half of 2022, the number of attacks carried out by settlers reached 561. These attacks varied between their participation in the occupation forces’ storming of Palestinian gatherings, their storming of Palestinian villages and attacks on the property of Palestinian citizens, writing racist slogans on walls, or attempting to bulldoze Palestinian lands.
Shaaban pointed out that 47 land razing operations were monitored by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers. The number of Israeli violations that targeted trees reached 51. These attacks targeted olive trees and were concentrated in the Salfit Governorate with 17 attacks, followed by Nablus with 16 attacks.