GENEVA (KUNA) — The UN special rapporteur on the right to food John Ziegler said Friday that 56% of the population eat only one meal per day and that 60% are living in extreme poverty.

Returning from a field mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) Ziegler added that there is massive economic destruction in the Palestinian territories.

Talking to reporters following his return, Ziegler noted that the reasons for this degradation of the Palestinian economy goes back to the Israeli occupation and noted that the Israeli security wall will not allow the Palestinian state when it becomes a reality to have international borders.

He called upon the international community to exercise maximum pressure to turn the road map into a reality in order to end the frightening sufferance of the Palestinian people.

Ziegler gave examples of the destruction of Palestinian agricultural fields and said that in Beit Hanoun, the Israeli army has destroyed all the Greenhouses, the factories and dozens of private houses.

In Rafah, he added, rows of Palestinian houses were also destroyed.

Jericho, who was not re-occupied, said Ziegler, was another town where the Israeli army destroyed its agricultural fields.

Ziegler will present a detailed report on his mission to the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan next September who in turn will present it to the General Assembly. (end)