Israel continues with settlement expansion to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian State
The Israeli occupation continues with implementing its settlement expansion plans in the occupied Palestinian territories, mainly in occupied Al-Quds, in order to create new facts on the ground that kill any hope for establishing the independent Palestinian State on the June 4th 1967 line.
In its weekly report published on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said that the occupation announced a plan to establish thousands of settlement units on the Palestinians’ land in the town of Beit Safafa, south of Al-Quds. This illegal procedure will completely separate Al-Quds city from Bethlehem and cut the geographic connection between the north and south of the West Bank.
The report went on to say that the occupation also plans to expand a settlement, already built on the land of the towns of Sha’fat and Bet Hanina, south of Al-Quds and another settlement already built in west of Al-Quds. The plan includes establishing settlement roads to link the two settlements and restrict the Palestinians’ movement, the report clarified.
According to the report, the occupation forces razed parts of the Yusufiya cemetery, adjacent to the eastern side of Al-Aqsa Mosque, with the aim of establishing a settlement outpost. They also razed swathes of Palestinian land in the town of Beit Sahour in Bethlehem to build a settlement road and seized 40 dunums of the land of Yasuf village, east of Salfit in order to expand a settlement already built in this village.
The report continued by saying that the occupation forces demolished a house in the village of Abu Al-Nawwar, east of occupied Al-Quds, 6 houses in the village of Al-Qaboun, east of Ramallah and an agricultural facility in the town of Haris, west of Salfit. They also delivered a notification to a Palestinian telling him to evacuate his house in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Al-Quds in order to demolish it.
The report made it clear that the Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, continue to attack Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank during olive harvesting season, particularly in the south of Nablus. They prevented the farmers from harvesting olives in the village of Bourin and stole the olive crops from the Palestinian lands in Khirbet Yanun area, Qaryout village and Sebastia town where they uprooted 900 olive plants. The settlers also prevented Palestinian farmers from harvesting olives in Al-Ras village in Salfit and Kafr Thuluth in Qalqilya.
The report pointed out that groups of Israeli settlers also stormed into the village of Al-Tur in occupied Al-Quds, Al-Touba village in Al-Khalil and Al-Mughir town in Ramallah and attacked the Palestinian houses and properties. They also attacked herders in Khalet Makhoul area in the northern Jordan Valley.
Hamda Mustafa