“Sometimes I hear that people deny that it is an occupation. It is. Everyone sees it that way. The fact that it continues is very problematic,” he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

The official warned that the demolition of Palestinian structures in the West Bank by Israel is unacceptable and fuels tensions with the EU. Demolitions are a “very negative factor, and let me tell you that this is something very difficult to explain to Europeans”, especially for those works that the bloc financed, he stressed.

Only in 2022 Israel demolished 101 structures paid for by the EU, which meant a loss of 337 thousand euros.

“We are very upset because very often the humanitarian projects that we pay for are demolished,” he stressed. “It is incomprehensible to us that Israel denies the Palestinians building in Area C,” he said.

Area C constitutes 61 percent of the West Bank and is under full control of the Israeli army. There are more than a hundred settlements in which half a million Jewish settlers live.

Koopmans affirmed that Israel has a responsibility as an occupying power before the Palestinian population. It also has an obligation to protect them from violence by Jewish extremists, including settlers, who have intensified attacks on West Bank villages in recent weeks, he said.

jrr/llp/jha/rob