39 times more settlers in Palestine than in 1972

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) released a report on the number of illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian areas for the year 2007.

The number of occupation sites in the West Bank totaled 440. Of this, 144 were settlements, 96 were outposts inside settlement boundaries, 109 were outposts outside settlement boundaries, 43 were occupation Sites classified as Other, and 48 were military bases.

Most settlements, 26, were in the Beit Ul Moqaddas Governorate, 16 of which have been annexed by Israel.

The amount of land in Palestinian areas in the West Bank that are inaccessible to Palestinians on account of the occupation sites is 38.3.

The area of built-up land on different occupation sites reached 2.35 million square meters.

The available data indicate that the number of settlers in the West Bank in 2007 reached to 483,453. Most of these lived in the Beit Ul Moqaddas Governorate which had 256,037 settlers. In the Ramallah & Al-Bireh Governorate there were 81,851 settlers, in the Beit lahm Governorate there were 50,507 Settlers, and the Salfit Governorate had 30,947 Settlers. The Tubas Governorate had the smallest number of settlers at 1,319.

The report shows that the number of settlers who live in Israeli Settlements in the Palestinian Territory increased 39 times between 1972 and 2007.