16,000 colonial units built in 3 years

armed_israeli_setters_near_hebron__photo_by_michael_ramallah

 Saeb Erekat, member of the Palestinian Liberation
Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, stated that the Israeli government Continues to exercise the settlement policy on the occupied Palestinian
territories." During a meeting with the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Erekat said: "The total number of Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land after
Benjamin Netanyahu came into office from 2009 to 2012 has reached over 16,000 settlement units. On average, this is 11 new settlement units a day."
He added that an increase of settler acts of violence against the
Palestinians has been observed in the last few years, "At an alarming rate." He explained that the violent acts committed by settlers increased from 2009 to the end of 2012 by 315 per cent. Such acts include killing
innocents and setting fire to trees, mosques, and churches all of which
are carried out under the protection of the Israeli army." He also pointed
out that "Since the appointment of the Minister of Defence, Moshe Ya'alon,
last month, the Israeli 'settlers', along with the occupation army forces,
started establishing road barriers in the West Bank."
< http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/6085-israel-constructed-16000-settlement-units-over-the-past-3-years>link
to www.middleeastmonitor.com<http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/6085-israel-constructed-16000-settlement-units-over-the-past-3-years>

Gaza 'forbidden zone' expands

The Coordinator of Government
Activities in the "Territories" has clarified that the 'forbidden39; buffer
zone in Gaza strip stretches 300 metres from the 'fence' (the Israeli
border), and not 100 metres as it previously announced. Civilians who enter
the area risk being shot by the army. In the past, the killing of
Palestinians who wandered into the forbidden zone has led to retaliatory
rocket launching from the Strip into Israeli territory. The clarification
was made following a request by the human rights organization
Gisha<http://www.gisha.org/>.
Gisha had noticed that the IDF Spokesperson’s messages stated a different
distance than did the Coordinator of Government Activities in the
Territories, which claimed that Gazans are not allowed into an area
stretching only 100 metres from the barrier. Recently, the army notified
Gisha that the forbidden zone is indeed three times larger than previously
reported. The army has refused to fully detail the methods it uses to warn
farmers and other civilians from wandering into the forbidden zone it
declared. A spokesman for the army has told Gisha that such methods are
part of "the opening fire procedures, and cannot be disclosed."
< http://972mag.com/idf-forbidden-zone-in-gaza-three-times-larger-than-previously-stated/71282/>link