A United Nations official has called on Israel to immediately halt the destruction of Palestinian-owned properties in the occupied West Bank.

In a press release on Wednesday, the UN official said Israeli forces have destroyed, confiscated, or dismantled hundreds of Palestinian homes and other structures since the start of the year.

“The number of demolitions for just the first six weeks of 2016 is greatly alarming,” UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance and Development Aid for the occupied Palestinian territory, Robert Piper, said.

Piper added that 283 homes and structures have been destroyed or confiscated between January 1 and February 15.

“Most of the demolitions in the West Bank take place on the spurious legal grounds that Palestinians do not possess building permits,” said Piper, “but, in Area C, official Israeli figures indicate only 1.5 per cent of Palestinian permit applications are approved in any case. So what legal options are left for a law-abiding Palestinian?”

He added that 404 Palestinians, including 219 children, have been displaced during this time period, a figure equivalent to half of the total number of Palestinians displaced in all of 2015.

According to Piper, another 1,150 Palestinians have also been affected.

Reports indicate that Palestinian Bedouins have particularly been hit hard by the Israeli demolitions.

Earlier this week, the European Parliament (EP) called for an immediate end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories as well as the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and demolition of Palestinian homes.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).