Ramallah, July 2, 2024: The Colonization & Wall Resistance Commission released its semi-annual report titled “The Occupation State’s Violations on the Palestinian Territories and Colonial Expansion Measures” covering the first half of 2024. Mr Moayyad Sha'ban, the head of the Commission, reported that the Israeli occupation state committed a total number of 7681 violations during this period. These acts were carried out by the occupation state’s various apparatus, including its colonisers’ militia, targeting Palestinian citizens and their properties. Mr Sha’ban added that this significant increase in both the nature and scale of violations comes hand in hand with the horrifying aggression the occupation state is carrying out against our people in the Gaza Strip and all places where Palestinians reside. The violations included imposing facts on the ground (land confiscation, colonial expansion, forced displacement), field executions, sabotage, land-levelling, tree uprooting, confiscation of property, closures, and barriers that cut the ties of Palestinian geography. These attacks were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate with 1,307 attacks, the Jerusalem Governorate with 1,099 attacks, and the Nablus Governorate with 1,093 attacks.
Mr Sha'ban explained that the reality of the lands in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem has become increasingly sensitive; worsened by all the complications imposed by the occupation state over the long years of occupation. He added, that the true danger lies in the occupation’s efforts to affect the legislative and legal incubator that the occupation state is attempting to install measures to control and annex large parts of the Palestinian lands. These measures not only assault the capabilities of our Palestinian people but also show blatant disdain for international laws and retroactively criminalise their actions. The occupation state establishes facts on the ground with the ultimate goal of eliminating the establishment of a Palestinian state in the future and isolating the city of Jerusalem, stripping it of its cultural, human, and civilisational identity.
Mr Sha'ban added that the report recorded a total of 1,334 attacks carried out by colonisers during the reporting period, resulting in the deaths of 7 citizens at the hands of colonisers. These assaults included attacks on Palestinian villages, assaults on residents, setting homes on fire, shooting at citizens, establishing colonial outposts, seizing Palestinian land, and attacking roads and vehicles. These incidents have recently escalated into organised and dangerous attacks, particularly in the villages of Al-Mughayyir, Qusra, Duma, and Burin, among others. The highest number of these attacks was recorded in Nablus Governorate with 399 incidents, followed by Hebron Governorate with 258 incidents, and Ramallah Governorate with 223 incidents.
Mr Sha'ban indicated that from the beginning of 2024 until the end of June, the occupation authorities reviewed (deposited and approved) a total of 83 master plans for either expanding existing colonies or establishing new ones. This includes 39 plans for West Bank colonies, including over 8511 housing units, and 44 plans for Jerusalem colonies, involving 6,723 units. In the first half of 2024, colonisers established 17 colonial outposts on Palestinian lands, mostly pastoral, in the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus, Salfit, Bethlehem, Hebron, and Qalqilya. Mr Sha'ban added that the occupation authorities legitimised 11 new colonial outposts through cabinet decisions, adjusting the influence of nearby colonies, or approving master plans. This development threatens to lead to more land confiscation and increased restrictions on Palestinian villages and towns in favour of colonial construction.
He added that during the reporting period, the occupation authorities seized more than 26,000 dunums of Palestinian land under various pretexts, including state land declarations, nature reserve boundary adjustments, expropriation orders, and military seizure orders. Specifically, 11,000 dunums were declared state land, while 15,000 dunums were confiscated by adjusting the boundaries of nature reserves. Additionally, nine military seizure orders targeted 84 dunums and an expropriation order for constructing a colonial road affected a total of 385 dunums of Palestinian land.
Mr Sha'ban stated that in the first half of 2024, the occupation authorities issued 359 notifications to demolish Palestinian facilities under the pretext of lacking a building licence. Most of these notifications were concentrated in the governorates of Hebron (111 notifications), Jericho (73 notifications), and Ramallah (46 notifications). The occupation authorities carried out a total of 243 demolition operations, during which they demolished 318 facilities in the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem. The demolition operations affected 632 people, including 292 children and 199 women.
Mr Sha'ban pointed out that the occupation state and colonisers’ militias have caused the cutting down and damage of a total of 9,957 trees since the beginning of the year, including 4,097 olive trees. The cutting was concentrated in Nablus Governorate with the felling of 3,741 trees, in Bethlehem Governorate with 3,055 trees, and in Hebron Governorate with 2,125 trees. This represents another record against Palestinian trees in a clear and systematic targeting within the framework of land depletion and degradation in Palestine.