JERUSALEM, Nov 17: Only 18 per cent of some 30,000 West Bank farmers who used to work the lands cut off by Israel’s separation barrier now have Israeli permits to reach their fields, the UN said in a report on the lives of some 230,000 Palestinians in 67 communities close to the barrier.

The report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs looked at 15 communities with about 10,000 residents trapped between the barrier and Israel, and at 52 communities with 220,000 residents on the “Palestinian side” of the divider.

Those in the hemmed-in villages require permanent residency permits, while those on the east side of the barrier need Israeli-issued visitors permits to reach lands or visit family in the enclosed communities.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said the report is “one-sided” and that Israel is working to reduce the barrier’s impact on the Palestinians.

Israel started building the barrier in 2002, saying it is a temporary security tool meant to keep out of Palestinian attackers who by then had killed hundreds of Israeli civilians in bombings and shootings. However, the barrier is largely built on West Bank land and Palestinians say its meandering route amounts to a land grab.

Once completed, it would slice off 8.6 percent of West Bank land and, according to UN data, incorporate 380,000 of 450,000 Israelis living on war-won land the Palestinians demand for their state-to-be.

The UN report, citing local community leaders, said that of some 30,000 Palestinians who used to work their fields on the “Israeli” side of the barrier, only 18 per cent currently have permits to reach their fields. Some 3,000 people stopped applying because they’d been repeatedly rejected in the past.

Sixty-seven gates are built into the 200 kilometre stretch of barrier studied, the report said.

Of those, 19 are open daily to those with permits, but are closed at night, while another 19 are open during special harvest seasons, or weekly, the report said.

—AP