The Israeli occupation announces a plan to build 2540 new settlement units in occupied Al-Quds

The Israeli occupation has announced a new plan to establish more than 2540 settlement units in occupied Al-Quds that will completely isolate the village of Beit Safafa that links Al-Quds to the rest of the West Bank, in a blatant violation of international resolutions, mainly the UN Resolution No. 2334 of 2016 which affirms the illegality of the Israeli settlement building activities and calls for stopping them.

In its weekly report published on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said that the occupation authorities announced a plan to establish more than 2540 new settlement units in occupied Al-Quds, 540 of which will be built on Palestinian lands in the Jabal Abu Ghneim area between Al-Quds and Bethlehem, and 2000 of them will be built in the east of Al-Quds. The bureau’s report indicated that the establishment of these settlement units in these two areas will actually isolate the village of Beit Safafa from the rest of the Palestinian cities and towns and will undermine any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.

 The report added that as part of its plan to judaize Al-Quds, the occupation forcibly seized 13 dunums of Palestinian land in Hazma town, to the east of occupied Al-Quds and razed swathes of land between the villages of Al-Za’eem and Al-Issaweyeh in Al-Quds with the aim of establishing settlement roads.

According to the report, the occupation continued to demolish the Palestinian houses as part of its ethnic cleansing policy. The occupation authorities demolished a house in Jabal Al-Mukabber neighborhood as well as a number of commercial facilities in Al-Issawiyeh in occupied Al-Quds and delivered notices about demolishing 63 agricultural facilities in the northern Jordan valley, the report said.

The report went on to say that the Israeli settlers also continued to attack the West Bank cities and towns under the protection of the occupation forces. They seized an area of land as well as four Palestinian buildings in the town of Silwan in occupied Al-Quds and established three new settlement outposts, one in the northern Jordan Valley, the second in the town of Tuqu ‘, east of Bethlehem and the third in Asira Al-Qibliya, south of Nablus.

The settlers also cut down 100 olive trees in the village of Qasra in Nablus, prevented Palestinian farmers from reaching their lands in the village of Jalud, south of the city and attacked the mayor of Sebastia town, north of Nablus while he was resisting the settlers’ attempt to kidnap a Palestinian child during their raid on the archaeological area in the town. The attack caused bruises to the mayor.

The report indicated that the settlers also stormed the town of Kifl Haris in Salfit as well as Al-Qafisha and Sharif neighborhoods in the vicinity of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Al-Khalil and Al-Shuhada Street in the center of the city. They attacked the Palestinians and their properties in these areas, which resulted in the injury of a Palestinian woman and her daughter, and caused material damage to a number of houses and cars. A Palestinian woman was also killed after a settler’s car run over her in the town of Al-Samu, south of Al-Khalil.

Hamda Mustafa