Also on Monday, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed that the Israeli authorities demolished two homes in Qalandia Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank in the middle of Saturday night.
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The settler population in the West Bank is estimated at 531,000: in late 2012 the population of the West Bank settlements was 341,400; in late 2011 there were 190,423 individuals living in Israeli neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
Another 140 units will be built in the settlement of Ramot and about 100 in Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev settlements on the outskirts of Jerusalem.
Israeli soldiers have kidnapped, overnight and at dawn Sunday, at least ten Palestinians, during massive invasions and searches of homes; nine of the kidnapped are from the Old City, and one from Silwan town.
Two Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks in Hebron this week, including a 13-year-old girl who was fatally stabbed in the Kiryat Arba settlement.
The crackdown comes following two deadly days, during which two Palestinians and two Israelis were killed.
Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say. He was then shot dead by the settlement’s security force.
“Incitement and payouts to terrorists and their relatives constitute an incentive to murder”, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement announcing the funding cuts, effective immediately.
Israel transfers around $127 million in customs duties levied on goods destined for Palestinian markets that transit through Israeli ports monthly.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency cabinet on the topic.
On Friday, Liebermann also authorized the building of extra 42 housing units in the West Bank, reopening a construction tender frozen more than a year ago due to the lack of bidders.
A senior Palestinian official told Al Hayat that the USA has the “upper hand” in the Quartet, “the United Nations does not have any power, the European Union doesn’t have a unified voice”, and though Russian Federation is “a friend to the Palestinians”, Moscow often comes to understandings with Washington over the region.
“This includes cordoning off the entire Hebron district – 700,000 people”, he said, referring to the city and surrounding area.
Checkpoints and closures were still in place at entrances to the city on Monday.
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The surge in violence also prompted Israel to send hundreds of troops to the area over the weekend and impose a closure on the Hebron district, where numerous recent attacks originated. The last attempt, led by the USA, collapsed in April 2014.
