National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlement: Israeli occupation presses ahead with its plan to annex West Bank areas
The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements has stressed that the Israeli occupation forces continue, with the complete support of the American administration, to violate the international law and expand settlement building activities in the West Bank, mainly in occupied al-Quds within the framework of implementing the occupation’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
In its weekly report, the Bureau said that the occupation’s authorities announced a plan to establish a thousand new settlement units on the lands of al-Tur, Anata, al-Eizariya and abu Dis villages in occupied al-Quds, indicating that the plan will completely isolate the occupied East al-Quds area from the rest of the West Bank.
The report pointed out that the occupation authorities have seized 90 dunums of Palestinian land and demolished four houses, two agricultural facilities and a commercial facility in the town of al-Issawiya in occupied al-Quds. The occupation also demolished two houses in the town of Silwan, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and a house in Beit Hanina, north of the city, thus increasing the demolition acts carried out by the occupation authorities during the first half of this year in al-Quds to 74 which were concentrated in Silwan, Issawiya, Jabal al-Mukaber, Beit Hanina, Sour Baher, Sha’fat, Wadi Al-Joz, Ras al-Amoud and al-Tur.
The report indicated that the occupation authorities demolished a house in the town of Beit Awwa in al-Khalil city in addition to several agricultural and commercial facilities in the towns of Izna and Susiya to the south of al-Khalil, the town of al-Khader, to the south of Bethlehem, and the town of Rantis, to the northwest of Ramallah. The occupation also delivered notifications to demolish the village of Farasin in Ya’bud area, to west of Jenin, within days. Some 200 people are residing in this village.
According to the report, the Israeli occupation presses ahead with its aggressive acts against the Palestinians in the West Bank aiming to displace them. The occupation forces burned 20 thousand dunums of agricultural land in the village of Mughair in Ramallah and bulldozed large areas of land in Doura town, south of l-Khalil, in order to expand a settlement established on the land of this town. The occupation forces also seized 327 dunums of the land of the village of Kisan, to the east of Bethlehem, in order to establish 224 settlement units. In addition, the occupation forces seized 15 dunums of land in Rafat village, to the west of Salfit. They uprooted 200 palm trees, demolished 3 water wells that irrigate 210 dunums of agricultural land in the village of Al-Jaftalik in the Jordan Valley and prevented the Palestinians from setting up a drinking water pipeline in Atouf village, to the southeast of Tubas city.
The report pointed out that the Israeli settlers continue with their attacks against the Palestinians under the protection of the occupation forces. They stormed the towns of Huwara, Asira al-Qibliyeh, Orta in Nablus and Fara’ta, to the east of Qalqilya. The settlers attacked the Palestinians’ houses and properties, stormed the towns of Bruqin and Kafr al-Dik in Salfit and uprooted dozens of fruit trees.
Hamda Mustafa