West Bank: Israel to halt demolition in area C

JERUSALEM

Israel on Thursday informed the UN that it would suspend demolition efforts in parts of the West Bank.

"Israel informed the UN that it will temporarily freeze demolitions of inhabited Palestinian homes and medical structures in area C of the West Bank due to the coronavirus crisis," the Tel Aviv-based broadcaster Channel 13 reported.

"The Israeli officials said during the meeting that they expect that this humanitarian decision will not be used by the Palestinians to build new houses in area C illegally," it added.

Later, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, for his part, confirmed the announcement in a statement.

"I was informed by top U.N. officials that, the Israeli occupation authorities informed them that they will stop demolitions of Palestinian homes," he said.

According to figures by the UN-OCHA, since the beginning of this week, the Israeli authorities had demolished five Palestinian structures in area C. Palestinians affirm that Area C is part of the West Bank and that there is no Palestinian state without this region.

Roughly 650,000 Israeli Jews currently live on more than 100 settlements built since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions -- Area A, B and C.

Israel prevents Palestinians from conducting construction projects in parts of the West Bank designated as Area C under the agreement, which falls under administrative and security control of Israel.

Area C is currently home to 300,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Bedouins and herding communities who predominantly live in tents, caravans and caves.

International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.