Since 1967, the Israeli government has pursued a policy of demolishing Palestinian homes during military operations, and when owners do not have official Israeli-issued building permits which are extremely difficult to obtain.

Deaths and Injuries

Since September 2000 more than 5000 Palestinians have been killed and over 40,000 have been injured. 40% of those killed were children under 18 years of age. 66% of those injured and treated in hospitals were as a result of shrapnel due to Israeli bombardment. According to Palestine Monitor, 8,329 of injuries have been caused by live ammunition, 6,937 by rubber and plastic bullets, and 6,653 by tear gas.  The deaths and injuries in Palestine are constantly rising.

The Separation Wall

• The Wall is up to 8 meters tall in some areas, and 750 km long. When it is finished, it will be three times as long and twice as tall as the Berlin wall.
• The wall will include trenches, barbed and electrified wire, watchtowers, and snipers. It is located just meters from schools, shops, and homes.
• 80% of the Wall is being built on West Bank land illegally confiscated from Palestinians by the Israeli military.
• The Wall has already severed East Jerusalem from the West Bank. Each kilometre of the Wall costs an estimated $3.7 million.
• When complete, the Wall will enclose 60,500 Palestinians whose West Bank villages lie between the route of the Wall and the 1967 Green Line. These villagers will be totally dependent on the Israeli military to allow them in and out of their own homes.
• On July 9th 2004 the Wall was declared “contrary to international law” by the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
• The ICJ cited Israel’s obligation to dismantle the Wall, and to pay reparations for all damage caused by its construction. Israel has rejected the ICJ ruling and recommendations.

Destruction of Agriculture

Over one million olive trees and hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been uprooted by the occupation forces in Palestine in the past 40 years. This has had a catastrophic economic consequence on the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families dependent on these trees for their sustenance.

The Checkpoints

Since September 2000, 69 women were forced to give birth at check points in front of Israeli solders, resulting in 35 babies being killed.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Movement within and in and out of the West Bank is controlled by numerous checkpoints, roadblocks, earth-mounds and gates. These manned and unmanned physical barriers…restrict the movement of around 2.4 million Palestinians.”

The Settlements

• There are currently 120 officially recognized Israeli settlements and 102 settlement “outposts” (unauthorized but state-sponsored and funded by government ministries) in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. These settlements are all in violation of international law and UN resolutions.
• These settlements and outposts are inhabited by a population of some 460,000 Israeli settlers.
• Approximately 200,000 of them live in settlements in and around East Jerusalem.
• In 2004, a ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared that
  “Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development.”

Palestinian Refugees

• At the end of 2006 the global Palestinian population numbered over 10.1 million people. 70% of Palestinians (almost 7.5 million people) are refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).
• More than 450,000 Palestinians are currently IDPs in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
• More than two thirds of Palestinian refugees live in exile.
• There are 58 official Palestinian refugee camps. Less than a third of the 4,375,050 Palestinian refugees in the Middle East live in camps:

_{Source: Palestine Monitor}