Isreali occupation’s settlement building activities undermine chances of establishing a geographically connected Palestinian state

The Israeli occupation has intensified razing the Palestinians’ lands in the West Bank city of Nablus with the aim of establishing a settlement road linking the settlement outposts built on the city’s lands to those built in its vicinity and those built on Palestinian lands occupied in 1948. These Israeli violations undermine any chance for establishing a geographically connected Palestinian state.

In its weekly report issued on Saturday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) National Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements, said that within its colonialist annexation plan, the Israeli occupation continues to raze Palestinian lands and uproot trees in the town of Hawara south of Nablus to set up a 7 km long settlement road that occupies an area of 406 dunums of land in the villages and towns of Hawara, Borin, Arouta, Oudla and Beita south of Nablus. The aim is to connect the settlement outposts to each other and to those built on the Palestinian lands occupied in 1948.

 The report added that the occupation also razed swathes of land in Khirbet Al-Himmeh area in the northern Jordasn Vally in preparation to set up a road connecting a number of settlement outposts to each other.

According to the report, the occupation announced a plan to build 410 settlement units on the Palestinians’ lands in the towns of Ramin and Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm, and 32 settlement units on the land of Khirbet al-Hilweh in the northern Jordan Valley.

The occupation also seized 147 dunums of Palestinian land in the towns of Nahalin and Husan in Bethlehem to expand settlement operations.

The report indicated that the occupation forces demolished a house in Jabal Al Mukaber in Al-Quds, ordered the demolition of 13 houses in the town of Qabalan, south of Nablus and prevented the Palestinians from completing restoration works in the Islamic cemetery in the town of Yatta, south of Al-Khalil city.

The report went on to say that the Israeli settlers continue with their attacks on the cities and towns of the West Bank under the protection of the occupation forces. They escalated their raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City in occupied Al-Quds and attacked Palestinians and their properties. The settlers broke into Palestinian shops in the Old City of Al-Kalil and prevented the Palestinian farmers from entering their lands in the towns of Al-Zahiriyehv and Masafer Yatta in the south of Al-Khalil and burned dozens of olive and fruit trees in the towns of Beit Fajjar, Walaja, and Jabal Ruwaisat in Bethlehem.

Hamda Mustafa