Description

Dina (R), a nine-year-old girl, cries as her father puts his arms around her and her cousin Halla (L) during the demolition of their house in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina February 5,2013.(Reuters/Ammar Awad)

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BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Thirty-six international charities and human rights groups on Wednesday released a statement calling for an immediate end to the demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The groups -- among them Amnesty International, Oxfam and Save the Children -- co-signed a statement denouncing Israeli house demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"Since the resumption of the peace process in July, Israel has destroyed 207 Palestinian homes and property in the occupied West Bank, displacing 311 Palestinians, over half of whom are children," a statement from the Association of International Development Agencies said.

"These demolitions, in areas under Israeli control, have driven Palestinian families from their communities and their land, increasing poverty and the need for humanitarian assistance."

House demolitions are often carried out to facilitate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the destruction of civilian property is a violation of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law, AIDA added.

Below is a list of the 36 aid groups.

1. Action Against Hunger (ACF)

2. ActionAid

3. Amnesty International

4. American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

5. CARE International

6. The Carter Center

7. CCFD - Terre Solidaire

8. Christian Aid

9. Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI)

10. Cordaid

11. DanChurchAid

12. Diakonia

13. Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)

14. Heinrich Böll Stiftung

15. Help Age

16. Human Rights Watch (HRW)

17. ICCO

18. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)

19. International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

20. Islamic Relief World Wide

21. Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)

22. Kvinna til Kvinna

23. The Lutheran World Federation

24. Medical Aid for Palestinians – MAP UK

25. medico international

26. Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

27. Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)

28. Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

29. Oxfam

30. Polish Humanitarian Action (PAH)

31. Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW)

32. Save the Children

33. Secours Islamique France

34. Terre des hommes Italy

35. Terre des hommes CH (Switzerland)

36. World Vision Jerusalem-West Bank- Gaza