Zionist military to seize 320,000 square meters of Palestinian land for settlement expansion in West Bank
The Israeli military is set to confiscate thousands of square meters of Palestinian-owned land in the southern West Bank to expand illegal settlements in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions which condemn the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation policies in the occupied territories.
Hasan Brijiyeh, a local anti-settlement and anti-apartheid activist, told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli officials had issued a military order aimed at confiscation of 230 dunams (230,000 square meters) of private Palestinian land in al-Khader town and the villages of Nahalin and Artas, in order to expand the nearby illegal settlements of Daniel, Eliezer and Efrat.
Brijiyeh noted that the order will come into effect within 30 days from the date of the decision.
Last month, Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian activist who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said that Israeli officials were planning to grab some 616 dunams (616,000 square meters) of Palestinian-owned land in the villages of Qaryout and al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, and as-Sawiya town to make room for the expansion of Eli settlement.
Emboldened by former US president Donald Trump’s all-out support, Israel has stepped up its illegal settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”
Much of the international community regards the Israeli settler units in the occupied lands as illegal.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued illegal settlement expansion.
