(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - UN humanitarian coordinator for occupied Palestine Maxwell Gaylard on Friday called on Israel to put an immediate end to its systematic demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank."Israel, as the occupying power, has a fundamental responsibility to protect the Palestinian civilian population under its control and to ensure their dignity and well-being," Gaylard said in a statement."The wholesale destruction of their homes and livelihoods is not consistent with that responsibility or humanitarian ideals,” he saidGaylard visited Anata village on the outskirts of occupied Jerusalem yesterday where he saw the ruins of seven Palestinian homes demolished earlier in the week and met with representatives of the displaced families.Bulldozers and troops had arrived in the middle of the night of 23 January, he was told, and that 52 people, including 29 children, had been forced out of their homes, which were then destroyed.The visit by Gaylard came on the same day that the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) released a new report showing that about 1,100 Palestinians, over half of them children, were displaced due to home demolitions in the West Bank by the Israeli occupation forces in 2011, over 80 percent more than in the previous year.The report, entitled “Demolitions and Forced Displacement in the Occupied West Bank,” added that an additional 4,200 people were affected by the demolition of structures related to their livelihoods.Gaylard noted that these figures represent a dramatic increase compared with previous years, and that tens of thousands of Palestinians remain under threat of dispossession, demolition and displacement."The current policy and practice of demolitions cause extensive human suffering and should end," he stated. "Palestinians urgently require ready access to a fair and non-discriminatory planning and zoning system that meets their needs for growth and development."/129
