Source: European Parliament
Question for written answer E-001332/2025/rev.1
to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Rule 144
Luke Ming Flanagan (The Left)
Concerning the escalating rate of Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Palestinian occupied West Bank, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented that Israeli occupation authorities demolished 1 787 Palestinian facilities between 7 October 2023 and 15 October 2024, including 800 inhabited homes.
On 21 January 2025, the Israeli military launched ‘Operation Iron Wall’, which, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), forcibly displaced 40 000 Palestinians in the northern West Bank[1]. Ireland and the EU have funded infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, such as schools, playgrounds and other community facilities, which Israel has demolished. The report details the expansion of Israeli illegal settlements, the unlawful demolition of Palestinian homes and a surge in settler violence, all taking place in ‘a climate of impunity’. International humanitarian law prohibits an occupying power from demolishing homes and other property belonging to the protected population. Israel’s practice amounts to a grave violation of international humanitarian law and is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Has the EU sought compensation from Israel for infrastructure subsidised by the EU and subsequently demolished by Israel?
Submitted: 1.4.2025
- [1] UNRWA, ‘Large-scale forced displacement in the West Bank impacts 40,000 people’ – official statement, 10 February 2025, https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/large-scale-forced-displacement-west-bank-impacts-40000-people.