Taking advantage of the international silence, the Israeli occupation continues its crimes against the Palestinians

Occupied Jerusalem (ST): During the past two days, the Israeli occupation demolished dozens of Palestinian homes and facilities in occupied Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and Bethlehem in the West Bank, taking advantage of the silence of the international community towards the aggravating suffering of the Palestinians and ignoring their continuous demands to take practical steps that obligate the occupation to stop the demolitions, which is a crime of ethnic cleansing in accordance with international laws and norms.

48 families were displaced by the occupation last Wednesday and demolished their homes in Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley, as well as their school and the only health clinic in it.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the escalation of the Israeli occupation’s demolitions and seizure of Palestinian lands, calling on the international community to break its silence and take “decisive” measures to stop the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinians.

Mo’ataz Bisharat, the official in charge of the file of settlement resistance in the Jordan Valley confirmed in a statement to a news reporter that the occupation seizes 261,000 dunums of Palestinian lands in the Jordan Valley, which are fertile agricultural lands rich in antiquities, and systematically destroys all the necessities of life in it to empty it of the Palestinian presence and implement colonial annexation plans.

Settlement expert Aref Daraghmeh explained that the Jordan Valley, which constitutes 28 percent of the area of the West Bank, is facing a fierce Judaization war, as the occupation has demolished 231 homes and facilities since the beginning of this year and handed demolition notices to 320 homes and other facilities during the coming period. It also seized 35 water wells to deprive the Palestinians. from cultivating their lands with the aim of restricting them and displacing them. 

Daraghmeh pointed out that the occupation established 36 settlement outposts on the lands of the Jordan Valley and is constantly expanding them to isolate the Palestinian villages and towns in the area from each other, stressing that the Palestinians are facing the occupation steadily and will foil all its attempts to uproot them from their land.

A spokesman for the people of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem, Fakhri Abu Diyab, stated that the town of Hizma has a strategic geographical location, as it is located on the road between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus, pointing out that the occupation is trying to seize it to link the settlements established on the lands of Ramallah and Nablus with Jerusalem and implement annexation plans.

Abu Diyab indicated that during the past two months, the occupation demolished 48 homes and notified the demolition of 890 homes and facilities in occupied Jerusalem, calling on the international community to compel the occupation authorities to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and the rules of international law and to stop the crimes of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing it is committing against the Palestinians.