Ramallah, Occupied West Bank – Seven Palestinian homes have been demolished in the past 24 hours across the Occupied West Bank – a move dubbed by Palestinian leaders as “collective punishment”.

The list of demolished structures includes three houses in Qabatiya town south of Jenin belonging to families of a trio gunned down in February after they killed an Israeli soldier.

Overnight on Monday, Israeli forces destroyed the family homes of Ahmad Zakarneh, Mohammad Kmeel and Ahmad Abu el-Rub, who fatally shot an Israeli border policewoman near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate.

Four other homes were also razed in the Occupied East Jerusalem and villages of Surif and Duma in West Bank.

Palestinians cry foul over house demolitions

Clashes erupted in Qabatiya following the demolitions, with five Palestinians taken to hospital in Jenin after they were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.

The family of a fourth man – incarcerated by Israel following accusations of aiding the three young men – was also handed a demolition order.

Qabatiya, home to 20,000 Palestinians, has been completely sealed off by the Israeli army twice in recent months, and many of its inhabitants have had their work permits revoked.

At least 10 Palestinians from the town have also been killed by Israeli forces since October last year.

In a wave of attacks since October last year – carried mostly by young, disgruntled Palestinian youths – at least 33 Israelis and foreign nationals have died.

Nearly 200 Palestinians, including civilians, assailants and others whom Israeli officials claim were armed with knives, have been killed.

Since September last year, 57 houses belonging to Palestinians have been levelled, according to the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s negotiations affairs department.

READ MORE: How impunity defines Israel and victimises Palestinians

Israel halted the punitive practice it regularly uses against Palestinians in 2005 after an internal commission found that it did not deter attacks. But the policy was revived last year despite the recommendations, and slammed by rights groups as a form of collective punishment.

“This is an arbitrary policy that affects everyone indiscriminately,” said Ahmad Kmeel, Mohammad’s father. “How is [it] the fault of the father, mother and the children? No one knew what he was going to do.”

Israel’s Supreme Court paved the way for the demolitions after it turned down appeals made on behalf of the families. Rajeh Zakarneh, Ahmad’s father, said the family dismantled and moved furniture after losing the petition.

“I built this house with my own two hands,” Zakarneh told Al Jazeera. “But my son is worth more than a thousand homes.”

Earlier on Sunday, the court had cancelled home-demolition orders for three of four Palestinians convicted of being involved in a stone-throwing attack in September that led to the death of an Israeli motorist. Najeh Abu el-Rub, Ahmad’s father, had hoped the court would also overturn the decision to raze his family home.

“We turned to the courts but that did nothing for us. They insisted on destroying the houses,” Abu el-Rub said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Sa’eb Erekat said the house demolitions were tantamount to acts of “collective punishment” that were being reported to the International Criminal Court.

“Granting impunity for continued Israeli crimes will not achieve a resumption of negotiations. Rather, it is killing any realistic political horizon to end the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine,” Erekat said.

The Israeli military has tripled its demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied territories over the past three months, a United Nations’ report says.

Figures collated by the UN’s office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA) – which operates in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem – show from an average of 50 demolitions a month in 2012-2015, the number rose to 165 since January, with 235 demolitions in February alone.

On Thursday, Israeli authorities demolished Palestinian buildings in al-Khan al-Ahmar village near the West Bank city of Jericho, and in Khirbet Tana village near Nablus.

Inside Story – Punishing the Palestinians

One of the owners of the demolished structures in al-Khan al-Ahmar, Hussein Kaabneh, said the demolition team came in the morning without warning.

“I was surprised by the police and army … so I was very mad. I asked them, ‘Why do you want to demolish it?’ I did not get a warning or anything. And he told me, ‘you are [your structure is] not legal’,” Kaabneh told Reuters news agency.

The Israeli military, which has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war, says it carries out the demolitions because the structures are illegal: either built without a permit, in a closed military area or firing zone, or violate other planning and zoning restrictions.

The UN and rights groups point out that permits are almost impossible for Palestinians to acquire, that firing zones are often declared but seldom used, and many planning restrictions date from the British Mandate in the 1930s.

The UN report on demolitions has alarmed diplomats and human rights groups over what they regard as a sustained violation of international law.

“It is a very marked and worrying increase,” said Catherine Cook, an OCHA official based in Jerusalem who closely monitors the demolitions, describing the situation as the worst since the UN body started collecting figures in 2009.

“The hardest hit are Bedouin and Palestinian farming communities who are at risk of forcible transfer, which is a clear violation of international law,” she said.

READ MORE: Israel demolishes Palestinian-owned homes in West Bank

The demolished structures include houses, Bedouin tents, livestock pens, outhouses and schools. In an increasing number of cases, it also includes humanitarian buildings erected by the European Union to help those affected by earlier demolitions.

Appearing before a sub-committee in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, Major-General Yoav Mordechai – coordinator of the Israeli government’s activities in the West Bank – defended the demolition policy and told politicians he was doing all he could to carry out 11,000 outstanding destruction orders.

Israel begins demolishing homes over attacks

The politicians summoned Mordechai to the hearing because of concerns he is not doing enough to dismantle Palestinian structures, and focusing instead on removing unauthorised Israeli construction in the West Bank.

“I want to state unequivocally that enforcement is more severe towards the Palestinians,” Mordechai told them.

“Moreover, much of the enforcement with regard to the Palestinians takes place on private Palestinian land.”

According to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, Mordechai’s admission appears to confirm that Israel’s policy discriminates against Palestinians.

“There is undoubtedly a wave of demolitions and displacements that is severely threatening the ability of thousands of Palestinians to live in these areas,” said Sarit Michaeli, the spokeswoman for B’Tselem.

“To demolish the homes of Palestinians who are protected under the Geneva Conventions and to build [Israeli] settlements is a clear violation of international humanitarian law,” she said.

READ MORE: Israel tears down seven Palestinian homes in 24 hours

Last month, the European Union hit out at Israeli authorities after a school funded by the French government was demolished.

In the West Bank, an estimated 18 percent of the area has been declared by Israeli authorities as “firing zones”, and 38 Palestinian communities are located within these areas.

Because the Israeli civil administration prohibits building in these areas, wide-scale demolitions frequently take place.

Throughout occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, some 90,000 Palestinians are facing potential displacement, according to OCHA.

How in the world can anyone with a particle of Conscience justify the demolishing of the Palestinians’ home? What kind of animals do this? If that’s not the worst crime against humanity, I don’t know what is!! What is our government do about this? we give the Israelis more munitions to do more!! and we call ourselves HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES. what a joke!!

‘Collective punishment’ targets Palestinians