Israeli occupation authorities escalate demolition and ethnic cleansing operations in occupied al-Quds

The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s  (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements has stressed that the Israeli occupation authorities are escalating house demolition and ethnic cleansing operations in occupied al-Quds and the northern Jordan Valley area with the aim of implementing their colonial plans and annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.

According to the Bureau’s weekly report issued on Saturday, the occupation authorities continue to exploit the remaining days and weeks of US President Donald Trump’s tenure, just as they exploited the past four years, to plunder Palestinian lands and perpetuate settlement policy by establishing more settlement units and carrying out massive demolition campaigns targeting the Palestinians’ houses in order to displace the Palestinians and make a demographic change in the West Bank, especially in occupied al-Quds and the Jordan Valley.

 The report added that on the day of the American elections, the occupation authorities carried out the largest house demolition operation against Palestinian homes in the West Bank since a decade. 76 homes and agricultural facilities were demolished by the occupation forces in Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa in the northern Jordan Valley, which led to the displacement of dozens of Palestinians, including 41 children, leaving them without shelter or a source of livelihood. The occupation authorities also delivered warnings about demolishing 15 houses in Khirbet Ibziq in the Jordan Valley, as part of  a campaign during which the occupation confiscated the two areas’ agricultural tractors, water tanks and vehicles in order to tighten the siege on them, forcibly displace them and seize their lands to implement the Israeli annexation plans.

The report went on to say that the occupation authorities announced a new settlement plan to Judaize Wadi al-Jouz area, east in occupied al-Quds, threatening to seize two thousand dunums of Palestinian land and demolish more than 200 industrial and commercial facilities.

According to the report, the village of Khan al-Ahmar, east of occupied al-Quds is still in danger, as the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed a plan to demolish it after about four months in order to establish a settlement outpost.

The report pointed out that the occupation forces demolished three homes and several agricultural facilities in the towns of al-Issawiya, Beit Hanina, and Jabal Al-Mukaber in occupied al-Quds, which brought the number of homes that were demolished in the city since the beginning of this year to 145.  The occupation forces also demolished three homes in the town of Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil city, and razed 500 dunums of Palestinian land northwest of Qalqilya that extend to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948 in preparation to forcibly seize them, the report said.

The report explained that the United Nations has criticized the Israeli demolition acts and stressed that the occupation’s measures constitute a serious violation of international law. It indicated that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “OCHA” affirmed that since the beginning of this year, the occupation authorities have demolished 689 buildings in different parts of the occupied West Bank, including al-Quds, pointing out that the West Bank is witnessing the largest demolition operation in years that led to the displacement of 869 Palestinians, including 404 minors.

The report made it clear that the European Union Spokesperson Peter Santo denounced the occupation forces’ demolition of more than 70 buildings this week in Khirbet Humsa al-Fawqa in the Jordan Valley, especially in light of the humanitarian impact of the current Coronavirus pandemic crisis.

According to the report, the Israeli settlers continue to attack the West Bank cities and towns under the protection of the occupation forces. They stormed the Old City in al-Khalil where they attacked the Palestinians’ houses and properties. They also raided the towns of Beit Ummar, to the north al-Khalil , Al-Sawiyah, Jalud, Asira Al-Qibliyeh and Beit Furik in Nablus where they attacked farmers picking olives and injured a number of them. The settlers also cut down dozens of olive trees and seized swathes of Palestinian land in Taqou’ to the east of Bethlehem.

Hamda Mustafa