Israeli occupation continues to implement its annexation plan in the West Bank amid the international community’s silence

The Israeli occupation goes ahead with implementing its annexation plans in the West Bank under the complete silence of the international community over the occupation’s violations of international legitimacy resolutions, including the Security Council Resolution No. 2334 of 2016 which demands the Israeli occupation to immediately stop its settlement building activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements said in its weekly report on Saturday.

Maan news agency said citing the report that the occupation announced a new settlement plan in occupied Al-Quds in order to create a new reality on the ground through which it sends a message to the new US administration and the  international community that it will unabatedly implement its expansionist plan and accelerate settlement building operations.

 The report said that this settlement plan will cause the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from several villages in Al-Quds and will permanently separate the north of West Bank from its south.

According to the report, the occupation also announced plans to expand several settlements that are already established in the cities of Bethlehem, Salfit and Ramallah, to establish two settlements outposts in areas in Nablus and to set up a settlement road between two settlements in occupied Al-Quds.

The report pointed out that the occupation authorities continue to raze Palestinian lands in order to establish a 7.2 km long settlement road- the largest in the north of the West Bank- to link the settlements surrounding Nablus with the Za’tara Junction in the town of Hawara town, south of Nablus and then to the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948. This road will swallow thousands of dunums of agricultural Palestinian lands in the towns of Huwara, Beita, Burin, Awarta, Yatma, Al-Sawiyah and Yasuf in Nablus, according to the report.

The report went on to say that throughout this week the occupation forces razed areas of Palestinian land in the center of Al-Khalil city to expand settlement operations. They also seized 193 dunums of lands from two towns in Ramallah and demolished, for the sixth time, the tents that the Palestinians had built in Khirbet Homsa in the Jordan Valley as shelters after the occupation demolished their houses last November to displace them and expand its settlement activities.

 The report pointed out that the United Nations and the European members of the Security Council affirmed at the conclusion of a recent Security Council session that the occupation must immediately stop the demolition of Palestinian houses and properties in the West Bank.

The report clarified that the occupation forces demolished two houses in the town of Issawiya, several shops in the town of Sur Baher in Al-Quds, several agricultural facilities in the town of Al-Khader and a house in the town of Tuqu’ in Bethlehem, and they issued a notification about demolishing several houses in the village of Kober in Ramallah.

Moreover, the report said that Israeli settlers continue to raid West Bank cities and towns under the protection of the occupation forces. They stormed the town of Kafel Haris in Salfit and Al-Tira neighborhood in Ramallah and attacked Palestinian houses and properties. They also cut down 90 olive trees in the villages of Al-Walaja and Kaysan in Bethlehem, vandalized Palestinian agricultural lands in Khirbet Makhoul in the northern Jordan Valley and seized wide areas of Palestinian lands in the town of Burin in Nablus.

Hamda Mustafa