New Israeli settlement expansion plan threatens with separating the cities of Salfit and Qalqilya

Occupied Al-Quds, (ST) – The Israeli occupation authorities announced seizing more than 10 thousand dunums of agricultural lands in the cities of Salfit and Qalqilya in the West Bank, in order to establish new settlements and expand other ones. This matter threatens with separating the two cities from each other and fragmenting and isolating the entire north of the West Bank from its center.

According to the governor of Salfit, Abdullah Kamil, the new plan aims at establishing a settlement outpost on an area of 4,000 dunums of the lands of the town of Zawiya, and expanding a settlement built on Masha lands in Salfit and linking it to a settlement established on the lands of the town of Sinria in Qalqilya. YThe paln also aims at establishing settlement units and roads on the lands of the towns of Rafat and Masha in Salfit, and Senria in Qalqilya.

Kamil stressed that the occupation practices represent a flagrant and gross violation of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy, foremost of which is Security Council Resolution No. 2334. He added that all settlement operations, seizing lands or displacing Palestinians, are illegal, rejected and condemned.

In turn, the coordinator of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in the northern West Bank Ghassan Douglas said that the plan includes, in its first phase, the seizure of most of the lands that lie between the cities of Qalqilya and Salfit, and linking the settlements established on the lands of the town of Sineria in Qalqilya with the settlements established on the lands of the towns of Rafat, Masha, Deir Ballut and Al-Zawiya in Salfit, the matter that threatens to isolate them from each other after besieging them with settlements.

Douglas pointed out that the occupation targets the north of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to implement the colonial annexation plans, and to prevent the establishment of a geographically contiguous Palestinian state. He said that Salfit is exposed to a fierce settlement war, as the settlers seized, during the past days, areas of the lands of the Deir Dagla area, south of the town of Deir Ballut, to establish a settlement outpost and on areas of Khirbet Shehadeh in the town of Deir Istiya.

For his part, the Head of the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, Salah Al-Khawaja indicated that the Israeli occupation began carrying out the most dangerous settlement operations by surrounding the main Palestinian cities with settlement belts and establishing settlement blocs that isolate them from each other. He added that the seizure of more than 10 thousand dunums of the lands of Salfit and Qalqilya is a prelude to the fragmentation of and completely isolated the northern West Bank from the center.

In his turn, the specialist in settlement affairs, Murad Shteiwi, stated that the occupation’s seizure of large areas of the lands of Salfit and Qalqilya is accompanied by massive demolitions that affected dozens of homes and facilities in the two cities, and preventing Palestinians from building and housing, especially in the towns and villages surrounding Salfit, to empty them of the Palestinian presence in favor of the settlers. He stressed that The Palestinians will continue to cling to the land and confront all the plans of the Judaizing occupation, because there is no way for the Palestinian people but to defend their land in light of the inaction of the international community.

For his part, Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization pointed out the Israeli occupation’s accelerated steps to expand settlements and implement annexation plans are a gross violation of international laws and resolutions.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry affirmed that the occupation is continuing its open war against the Palestinian presence, and continues to implement its plans to annex the West Bank. “On the one hand, the occupation continues to seize lands and expand settlements, as happened recently in Salfit, and on the one hand, it escalates house demolitions in Al-Quds (Jerusalem), the Jordan Valley, Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and the rest of the West Bank with the aim of closing the door to any opportunity to establish an independent and geographically contiguous Palestinian state”, it added.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry expressed its strong condemnation of the inability of the international community and its lack of the necessary will to force the occupation to comply with the decisions of international legitimacy, and oblige it to end the occupation of the land of the State of Palestine with its capital, Al-Quds.

Raghda Sawas