ISRAELI Defence Minister Naftali Bennett vowed yesterday to destroy all Palestinian buildings erected without almost-unobtainable permission in the occupied West Bank’s Area C.

Tel Aviv has also agreed to build nearly 2,000 new homes in illegal settlements across the region, including the retrospective authorisation of two illegal outposts.

Latest UN figures show a 45 per cent increase in the demolition and confiscation of Palestinian buildings in the West Bank in 2019 on the previous year.

“I am not at the United Nations,” Mr Bennett joked, saying: “I have a policy of fully supporting the settlements.”

Area C comprises about 61 per cent of the West Bank as set out by the Oslo Accords. It is home to about 300,000 Palestinians and 385,000 Israeli settlers.

The Palestinian Authority is responsible for the administration of medical and education services to Palestinians, but Israel is in charge of infrastructure construction.

According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, Palestinians are blocked from construction in almost 70 per cent of Area C and find it almost impossible to gain an official permit in the remaining 30 per cent.

Between 2000 and 2012, just 211 of 3,750 (5.6 per cent) Palestinian applications were approved, while Israeli Civil Administration figures show that around 75 per cent of Israeli settlements were built without the required permits.

Palestinians live in fear that their homes will be demolished and have limited legal avenues to develop their communities, often living in squalid conditions with limited services.

Israel’s so-called interdepartmental sovereignty committee held its first formal meeting on Sunday.

It was established by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “to begin planning for the application of sovereignty … over settlements in the Jordan Valley” — otherwise describable as annexation.