Guterres reiterates illegitimacy of occupation settlement activities in occupied Palestinian territories

New York(ST):  UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has  reiterated that the settlement activities carried out by the Israeli occupation entity in the occupied Palestinian territories do not enjoy any lawful legitimacy, calling for their immediate  halt.

France Press Agency reported  Guterres as saying in a statement last night that “the construction of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, does not enjoy any lawful legitimacy and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law.”

Guterres warned that the Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories further weakens the possibility of ending the occupation and establishing a sovereign and viable Palestinian state on the basis of the pre-1967 lines.

Earlier, the National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance of the Palestine Liberation Organization said in its weekly report that the occupation authorities announced a plan to establish 530 new settlement units in the southwest and north of occupied Jerusalem, and another plan to establish 800 new settlement units to expand settlements established in Jerusalem, Nablus, Ramallah and Bethlehem, Qalqilya and Jenin.

K.Q.