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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The United Nations humanitarian envoy in the Palestinian territories called on Friday for Israel to stop demolishing Palestinian homes.

"Israel as the Occupying Power has a fundamental responsibility to protect the Palestinian civilian population under its control and to ensure their dignity and well-being... The wholesale destruction of their homes and livelihoods is not consistent with that responsibility and humanitarian ideals," Maxwell Gaylard said in a statement.

The UN humanitarian coordinator for Palestine was visiting the north Jerusalem village of Anata, where seven homes were demolished on Tuesday morning, displacing 52 people, including 29 children.

Gaylard noted the "dramatic increase" in Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes during 2011, which "forcibly displaced almost 1,100 people, over half of them children, and compromising the livelihoods of several thousand more," the statement said.

"The current policy and practice of demolitions cause extensive human suffering and should end," the UN official added.

"Palestinians urgently require ready access to a fair and non-discriminatory planning and zoning system that meets their needs for growth and development."

He praised the work of organizations supporting displaced families, and "expressed serious concern about the repeated destruction of facilities supported by them," the statement noted.