WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Zionist regime officials approved plans for the construction of thousands of new housing units and demolished dozens of Palestinian-owned buildings in occupied Al-Quds last year, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Al-Quds Affairs says.
In a report on Sunday, the ministry said the occupying regime’s authorities green-lighted a host of plans in order to build about 12,000 units in the contested holy city throughout 2021, while they razed 177 Palestinian residences there.
They also ordered demolition of another 200 homes in occupied Al-Quds.
Zionist troops also killed 13 residents of the city, arrested more than 2,784 others, and forcibly evicted more than 490 Palestinian from their ancestral homes there.
The occupying regime regularly razes Palestinian homes and structures in Al-Quds to the ground on the pretext that they lack building permits, expropriating more Palestinian lands to expand its illegal settlements.
The international community considers settlement construction illegal under international law.
Nearly 700,000 Zionists live in illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.
In May, the occupying regime’s land grab in the occupied West Bank sparked a war between the military and Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip that lasted 11 days. During the war, the regime’s relentless bombardment of Gaza killed over 250 Palestinians, including 66 children.
In addition to expanding its illegal settlements, the occupying regime restricts freedom of movement for Palestinians not only in and out of Palestine but also within it. Zionist settlers, backed by the military, also routinely storm the Al-Aqsa mosque and provoke clashes with Palestinian worshipers.

Scores of Zionists Storm Al-Aqsa

Scores of Zionist settlers on Sunday forced their way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Al-Quds, according to a Palestinian agency, Anadolu Agency reported.
In a statement, the Jordan-run Islamic Waqf Department, which oversees holy sites in Al-Quds, said the settlers entered the complex through the al-Mugharbah Gate under Zionist police protection.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Since 2003, the regime has allowed settlers into the compound almost daily.