Israel continues its open-ended war on the Palestinians

The Israeli occupation has recently announced a plan to expand two settlements already built in the Palestinians’ land in the town of Qarawet Bani Hassan and Der Istya in the west Bank city of Salfit.

The plan threatens with seizing 10,000 dunums of Palestinian land in these two towns and in Wadi Qana village near Der Istya, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said in its weekly report published on Saturday.

Within the framework of implementing this plan, the occupation forces razed wide areas of Palestinian land between the villages of Hawara and Rajeib in Nablus with the aim of setting up a settlement road, the report said. The occupation also closed the road linking the towns of Qasra and Jaloud in Nablus, thereby depriving the Palestinians from reaching more than 600 dunums of agricultural land in this area, it added.

The report went on to say that the occupation authorities continue to adopt the policy of displacement and ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian territories. They demolished Palestinian houses and agricultural facilities in Khirbet Himsa Al-Fouqa in the northern Jordan vally for the seventh time since November 2020.

This prosedure has led to the displacement of 70 Palestinians including 36 children. The occupation authorities also demolished a house in the town of Tarmes’aya in Ramallah and another house in Al-Tor town in Al-Quds. They also delivered notifications about demolishing 25 Palestinian houses in Rajeib village and a residential building in Sha’fat town in occupied Al-Quds.

 In its latest report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) documented the occupation’s demolition of 421 Palestinian buildings since the beginning of this year with an increase of 24% compared to the same period of time last year, according to the report.

The report made it clear that the international reactions towards the occcupation’s policies of displacement and ethnic cleansing were confined to condemnation only, stressing that the international community’s inaction over the occupation’s crimes and violations in the Palestinian territories had encouraged the occupation to continue its open-ended war on the Palestinians and implement its colonialist annexation plans with the aim of  undermining every hope for establishing the independent Palestinian state.

The report pointed out that the Israeli settlers also continued throughout last week to attack cities and towns in the West Bank under the protection of the occupation forces. They seized tens of dunums of Palestinian lands in Nablus and Salfit to establish a settlement outpost. they also stormed villages and towns in Al-Khalil, Bethlehem, Ramallah and Nablus where they attacked the Palestinians, vandalized their properties and burned their crops.

Hamda Mustafa