The demolitions in the Jordan Valley community of Ain el-Helwe on Thursday displaced 66 people, including 36 children, James Rawley said in a statement on Friday.

"I am deeply concerned about the ongoing displacement and dispossession of Palestinians... along the Jordan Valley where the number of structures demolished more than doubled in the last year," he said.

"This activity not only deprives Palestinians of access to shelter and basic services, it also runs counter to international law."

His office said more than 1,000 people had been displaced last year in the West Bank and annexed East al-Quds by demolitions on the pretext that homes had been built without Israeli permits, "which are virtually impossible to obtain."

On Friday, around 300 Palestinians together with foreign activists set up camp in abandoned houses near Jericho in the West Bank to protest against Israeli regime's refusal to pull out of the Jordan Valley in case of a peace deal, an AFP photographer said.

An entire Palestinian village has been totally destroyed by Israeli forces in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank. According to reports, the demolition took place in the village of Khirbat Jamal early on Thursday.

Tel Aviv has repeatedly defied the international demand to stop the illegal construction of new settlements in West Bank and East al-Quds.

NTJ/MB