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Israel's home demolitions in West Bank spiked during pandemic: UN

From March to August, 389 Palestinian-owned structures were razed in the West Bank, the United Nations said.
Israeli authorities demolish a Palestinian house in the southern West Bank village of Khirbet Jinba on September 2, 2020, since it was reportedly built in "Area C" without Israeli authorisation. - "Area C" is a stretch of land accounting for 60 percent of the West Bank over which Israel has control under the terms of the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s. It is extremely difficult for Palestinians to receive building permits from Israeli authorities for that area. (Photo b

The number of Palestinian homes demolished by Israel in the West Bank has increased sharply in recent months and further exposed displaced residents to the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations said on Friday. 

From March to August, 389 Palestinian-owned structures were razed, in what the the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said was the highest average destruction rate in four years. During that period, 442 Palestinians were made homeless, the agency said. In just the month of August, 205 people lost their homes, the highest displacement figure since January 2017.  

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