The Israeli occupation continues with its Judaization scheme in occupied Al-Quds through incessant settlement building activities and house demolitions in the city’s different neighborhoods, in complete disregard for the international law and the Security Council resolutions. These attempts aim at displacing the Palestinians and changing the features of the old city in order to obliterate its historical and cultural identity in preparation for Judaizing it.
According to the weekly report of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements, the Israeli occupation announced completing the digging works in Jabal Al-Mukaber village that aim at establishing tens of settlement units on the mountain high slopes near the headquarters of the United Nations High Representative.
The occupation also has accelerated making fundamental changes to the features of Al-Quds old city, particularly in Bab Al-Khalil area, through razing its main square to establish a settlement road that connects this area to the settlement blocs built in the west of Al-Quds, the report said.
It added that over the past week, the occupation forces demolished a commercial facility in Beit Hanina and forced three Palestinian families to demolish their own houses in Ras Al-Amoud neighborhood and Sour Baher town.
The Israeli settlers also continued with their violations and provocative practices towards the Palestinians and their sanctities under the protection of the occupation forces. The settlers established a headquarter for the Israeli Knesset member “Itamar Ben Gvir” meters away from the house of a Palestinian family, a provocative act that may lead to the displacement of this family, according to the report.
The report went on to say that the occupation intensified settlement building operations in all areas of the West Bank. It announced a plan to establish 100 new settlement units to expand a settlement already built south of the city of Nablus. It also seized 70048 dunums in the cities of Bethlehem and Al-Khalil to build settlement units and establish roads that connect between two settlement blocs built in this area.
House demolition operations also were escalated last week in the West Bank, said the report. It clarified that the occupation demolished an agricultural facility in Beit Amer town and a commercial facility in Wadi Al-Sheikh area to expand a settlement road. The occupation also demolished several houses and agricultural facilities and destroyed wells in the towns of Yatta, Halhoul, Tarqoumia, Al-Bireh city, Kafr Al-Deek in Salfit, Musafer Yatta in Al-Khalil and several areas in the Northern Jordan Valley.
The report indicated that the settlers also uprooted 440 olive trees in Sureef in Al-Khalil, Deir Isstia in Salfit and Baraqa in Nablus. They also poisoned the Palestinians fields in Al-Fakheet village, south of Al-Khalil, attacked shepherds in Kisan village in Bethlehem and razed lands in Salfit, Nablus and Tulkarem with the aim of expanding settlement operations.
Hamda Mustafa