Israel constructed nearly 20,000 settlement units in the occupied West Bank during the recent ten years, Israeli official statistics have revealed.

According to data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, 19,634 settlement units were established by the Israeli authorities over the last decade.

60% of those units have been constructed in isolated Jewish-only settlements.

The largest number of settlements was recorded in 2016, when 3,211 units were built, and in 2017, with 1,697 units.

The rest of the units were built in large settlement blocs such as Ariel, Givat Ze'ev, and Modi'in Illit.

Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.