Israel to demolish 17,000 structures in West Bank

Around 17,000 structures are expected to be demolished by Israel, most of which lie on privately owned Palestinian land in the part of the illegally occupied West Bank, said a United Nations report.

According to The Guardian, the report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that between 1988 and 2014, Israel's Civil Administration, the governing body that operates in the West Bank, issued 14,000 demolition orders, of which more than 11,000 are still outstanding and could result in the demolition of up to 17,000 structures owned by Palestinians in Area C, including houses, sheds and animal shelters.

Around 4,500 of the demolition orders impacted Palestinian Bedouins, who human rights groups say are at the centre of Israeli plans to force them off their land to allow for expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

The figures for the report were taken from the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics. It showed that in contrast to demolition orders against Palestinians, only 6,950 demolition orders had been made against illegal structures inside Jewish settlements.