ICAHD UK apologides for the outdatedness of this analysis, and will seek to update this page as soon as we can. Several reports on house demolition activities in more recent years can be found in the Articles and News sections of the website.

The figures given here represent a cross-section of statistics from different parts of the Occupied Territories, and are not intended to be complete. The footnotes provide some detailed information, as do some of the organisations listed on the links page.

• Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, over 12, 000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed and over 70,000 people have been left homeless and destitute1
• Since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967, 70,000 government sponsored housing units have been built for Israelis but none have been built for Palestinians2
• Orders from the Israeli Interior Ministry distributed on 28.4.04 stipulated the demolition of a further 24 Palestinian houses in the East Jerusalem communities of Beit Hanina, Shu'fat, and Al Isawiya. The destruction of these East Jerusalem houses clearly illustrates the political agenda driving Israel's relentless demolition policy: Israel's attempt to alter the demographic make-up of the city.3 Since 1967, Israel has expropriated approximately 34% of East Jerusalem's land area for "public use". Another 53% of East Jerusalem's land has been set aside for colonies/settlements or designated as "green areas." Palestinians in East Jerusalem can therefore live and build on only 13% of their land. Permission to build houses in East Jerusalem can cost $30,000, (the price of a small apartment in West Jerusalem) and the process often takes up to five years. Palestinians often therefore find themselves lacking any other alternative but to build without permits and are then subject to forced evictions and home demolitions. Over 2,000 Palestinian homes in occupied East Jerusalem have been destroyed by Israeli occupation forces since 19673
• Almost 1,700 "illegal" Palestinian homes were demolished by court order during the course of the Oslo "peace process"1
• Since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 more than 4,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed in towns across the occupied West Bank and Gaza1
• 1,411 of these demolished homes have been in Gaza, leaving 2,277 families (12,712 people) homeless1
• Since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 15,000 houses have been damaged, 5,000 of them in refugee camps1
• Since the start of the second Intifada in September 2000 30 mosques and 12 churches have been destroyed, 134 water wells sealed or destroyed and 180,000 olive and fruit trees uprooted or cleared1
• More than 300 homes were razed in Jenin refugee camp in March 2002 as part of "Operation Defensive Shield"1
• In October 2001 Israel also renewed its activity of demolishing houses as punishment; by 29.4.04 at least 479 houses had been demolished for this reason3
• During 2003 more than 180 shops and houses were demolished in the border village of Nazlat Issa, one of the few places where Israelis and Palestinians shopped together1
• Between 16 and 22 January, Israel destroyed 72 houses in Rafah, Gaza Strip, leaving 584 people homeless; 9,970 people have lost their homes in Rafah since October 20004
• 102 illegal Israeli settlement/colony outposts were established between January 2000 and June 2003. Twenty-one were removed but most were later reinstated or moved to another place5
• In November 2003, Israeli bulldozers demolished 120 Palestinian homes in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza.1 Demolitions take place with total disregard for the residents: "At three in the morning on June 23 [2004], bulldozers and tanks rolled into a neighborhood in the [Rafah] refugee camp, crushing 20 houses and rendering 110 people homeless. They returned on July 10 to demolish 14 more.6 Many of those whose houses have been demolished have been made refugees by Israel on more than one occasion. Peter Hansen, UNRWA Commissioner-General, notes "If you're in Rafah, you can't go south because there is a border, you can't go west because there is an ocean, and you can't go north and you can't go east because there is nowhere to go. You can't get out of Gaza. So, if you've been a refugee many times over there is no longer anywhere to where you can flee."7
• Thousands of demolition orders remain outstanding1 dozens of new demolition orders are issued by the Israeli Authorities each month1