Israel plans to build a new settlement east of Gaza

The Israeli occupation has announced a plan to establish a new settlement east of Gaza Strip with the aim of suffocating the strip and plundering its water and agricultural resources.

 The move comes a month after the occupation completed building a cement and steel wall in the north and east of the Gaza to tighten the siege it has been imposed on the strip for more than 15 years and which turned it into the largest prison in the world. Inside this big prison, more than 2 million Palestinians have been experiencing very critical conditions.

The new settlement forms the base for hundreds of settlement units that the occupation plans to establish in the coming years. It perpetuates the occupation’s Judaization and settlement expansion schemes which have rapidly been implemented in an attempt to create new facts on the ground.

 The occupation also continues to bulldoze and destroy agricultural facilities and lands on the outskirts of the besieged Strip with the purpose of building this settlement.

Director of the Arab Center for Agricultural Development Mohsen Abu Ramadan told the Syrian News Agency (SANA) that the settlement is part of the steel-concrete wall project which extends from Beit Hanoun area in the north of the Gaza to Rafah in its south. The wall is 65 km long, 6-10 meters height, and 25 meters deep. It was built to deprive the Palestinians from reaching their lands.

He pointed out that the occupation wants to establish the new settlement in order to expand the area which the Palestinians can’t reach.

According to lawyer Hussein Hammad, the occupation deprived the Palestinians from cultivating 35% of their lands which form a source of income for more than 20,000 farmers. He explained that building this settlement is a dangerous step that aims at establishing a bloc of settlements in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip to destroy all elements of life.

Hammad clarified that last year, the occupation carried out 664 attacks on farmers in the east of Gaza Strip and destroyed and razed 16,600 dunums of land that were planted with different types of crops, causing heavy losses to the farmers and their families.

On his part, Tawfiq Al-Bansh, an expert in environmental affairs, said that the settlement is part of a settlement belt that consists of 50 settlements in the vicinity of Gaza Strip. This belt has, over the past years, been a tool for undermining the environment and wildlife in Gaza. It has also been a dangerous source of pollution, especially to the groundwater.

He pointed out that these Israeli settlements steal the Strip’s water, causing the loss of the groundwater which is the only source of water for the strip.

Al-Bansh indicated that the occupation has deliberately polluted the land and marine environment of the Strip and used for this purpose multiple and dangerous tools in blatant violation of all international conventions and laws. He called for urgent international intervention to stop this destruction.

Hamda Mustafa