Israel lashes back after UN envoy comments on settlements

The development came almost a day after Israeli forces brought down eight Palestinian structures in the Bedouin community of Maazi Jaba in the so-called E1 zone of West Bank. Nearby Israeli settlers have filed new petitions to the High Court to demolish the school and Bedouin encampments where some 100 families live in the desert.

Israel’s U.N. ambassador was critical Tuesday of a United Nations official who called Israeli West Bank settlements an obstacle to peace.

UN Mideast Envoy Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council of the “settlement surge” and the need to halt it.

Mladenov reported that a major threat to peace is the fact that since the beginning of July Israel has advanced plans for more than 1,000 housing units in eastern Jerusalem, which has been part of Israel proper for nearly 50 years.

David Keyes, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the comments “distort history”.

Mladenov also noted that Israel has published tenders, some new, for 323 units in eastern Jerusalem and reissued tenders for 42 units in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, for which it also allocated more than $13 million in new funding. Mladenov said this would contribute to the “dismemberment of the southern West Bank”.

The world body said there were 533 demolitions and 688 displaced Palestinians in the entire 2015, meaning that demolitions so far this year have increased more than 36 percent.

The Palestinians strongly support the French initiative, but Israel has rejected it, calling instead for direct negotiations.

The Security Council declared Israeli settlements to be illegal in a resolution adopted in 1979.

Mr. Mladenov also drew attention to a almost $100 million shortfall in the core budget of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which would affect the agency’s key services for vulnerable Palestine refugees throughout the region.

Witnesses said a large number of Israeli troopers surrounded the house of the Palestinian prisoner, Mohammed Abdulmajdi Abriwash, in the town of Dura, located 11 kilometers Southwest of al-Khalil, amid clashes with dozens of stone-throwing young Palestinian men, Arabic-language Safa news agency reported.

Turning to Gaza, he said that while progress has been made on reconstructing the physical damage since the ceasefire agreement two years ago, repairing the psychological damage of the conflict is “miles away” from being over.