By Zehra Nur Duz
ANKARA (AA) - A total of 950 houses and facilities were demolished and more than 113,400 dunums of Palestinian lands were confiscated by Israeli forces in 2022, a non-governmental organization said Wednesday.
The Land Research Center, operating in Palestine, issued a report on “Israeli Violations Against Palestinian Land and Housing Rights for 2022” and said Israeli forces also torched, ravaged, or attacked, 18,900 trees, most of them fruitful olive trees.
Meanwhile, 66 water harvesting cisterns, as well as 3,707 dunums of rehabilitated lands and postures were destroyed or ravaged, it noted.
The Israeli government announced 114 new settlement plans this year, while 2,220 residential units were built for 815,400 illegal Jewish settlers living on Palestinian lands, according to the report.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) decried plans Wednesday by the incoming Israeli government to accelerate settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.
Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said his government will promote settlement-building in the West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate about 650,000 settlers living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied Jerusalem.
Under international law, all Jewish settlements in occupied territories are considered illegal.