Israeli settlement expansion continues in Al-Quds to isolate it from its Palestinian surrounding

The Israeli occupation has intensified settlement building activities in occupied Al-Quds and its outskirts in order to isolate the city from its surrounding and to continue implementing the occupation’s colonialist annexation plan.

In its weekly report published on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said that the occupation has accelerated the pace of implementing its settlement building plans in the heart of Al-Quds and in its outskirts through establishing settlement outposts and roads that cut any geographic connection between this city and its Palestinian surrounding.

These procedures have turned Al-Quds into a connecting point between the settlement roads that separate the West Bank parts from north to south and from east to west, the report clarified.

 Building settlement outposts

According to the report, the occupation announced three new settlement building plans in occupied Al-Quds. The first aims at establishing a settlement outpost on 100 dunums of Palestinian land in the Al-Tur neighborhood, east of the city. The second aims at establishing a settlement outpost on 80 dunums of land in Wadi Al-Jouz neighborhood, northeast of Al-Quds old city, while the third plan provides for establishing a settlement outpost on 66 dunums of Palestinian land in the town of Umm Tuba, south of Al-Quds.

The report went on to say that the occupation also announced a settlement plan that threatens with seizing thousands of dunums of Palestinian land in the towns of Deir Istiya, Wadi Jbara, Wadi Al-Oqda, and Wadi Qana in Salfit city. The occupation also seized 10 dunums of agricultural lands in the towns of Beit Dajan and Beit Furik, east of Nablus in order to expand a settlement already built in this area.

Demolitions

The report also said that the occupation forces demolished six shops in the town of Hizma in occupied Al-Quds, a house in the town of Yatta in Al-Khalil, a mosque in the town of Duma in Nablus, in addition to agricultural facilities in Khirbet Al-Mitha in the northern Jordan Valley. They also closed a water spring in Al-Thaghra area, east of the town of Beit Ummar in Al-Khalil, with concrete to prevent the Palestinians from benefiting from this spring in irrigating their crops. The occupation forces also delivered evacuation notices to six Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Al-Quds in addition to demolition notices to owners of several houses and agricultural facilities in the towns of Kafr Al-Deek in Salfit, Ya’bad in Jenin and Khirbet Ibziq in Tubas, the report also said.

It pointed out that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) affirmed in its latest report that the demolition and seizure of Palestinian houses conducted until September of this year increased by 20% compared to the same period last year.   

Settler attacks

The report pointed out that the Israeli settlers also continued to attack Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank under the protection of the occupation forces.

The settlers stormed into the old city of Al-Khalil, attacked the Palestinians’ houses and properties and prevented the farmers from harvesting their olive crops in the towns of Taqou’ in Bethlehem and Jalboun in Jenin. They also chopped olive trees and looted other crops from Palestinian lands in the village of Kafr Qaddoum, east of Qalqilya,  

Many settlers also stormed into Khillet Makhoul in the northern Jordan Valley and attacked Palestinian Shepherd.

Hamda Mustafa