“On April 9, three of some 18 residential structures were demolished ... in Jabal al-Baba,” an area outside the sprawling settlement of Maale Adumim, a spokesman for the EU’s delegation to the Palestinian territories said on Friday, quoted in an AFP report.

The tin huts, used to house Palestinians made homeless by severe winter weather at the beginning of the year, were “partially funded by EU member states,” the official said.

The Tel Aviv regime issued demolition orders on all 18 structures in February, the official said, and EU delegates “raised this with the Israeli authorities” both at the time and following the demolitions.

The EU official further added that there were only discussions with Israeli authorities over the demolitions, but a report by EurActiv, a Brussels-based news service, said diplomats were also demanding financial compensation.

“We should ask for compensation from Israel whenever EU-funded humanitarian aid projects are destroyed,” EurActiv quoted an anonymous diplomat as saying.

The structures were located in E1, in the West Bank, east of al-Quds.

The Israeli regime has been planning settlement construction in E1 since the early 1990s but nothing has ever been built there due to heavy international pressure. Plans unveiled in December 2012 to build 1,200 more illegal settlement units were quickly put on hold after the announcement triggered a major diplomatic backlash.

This is while the Palestinians insist that construction in E1 would effectively cut the West Bank in two and prevent the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

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