‘Israel’ Steals 616,000 More Square Meters of Palestinian Land for Settlement Expansion

By Staff, Agencies

The ‘Israeli’ occupation regime is going to steal thousands of square meters of private Palestinian land in the northern West Bank to expand a settlement in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions condemning the Tel Aviv regime’s land expropriation and settlement expansion policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian activist who monitors the Zionist settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said on Monday that ‘Israeli’ officials had issued a military order aimed at confiscation of some 616 dunams [616,000 square meters] of Palestinian-owned land in the villages of Qaryout and al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, and as-Sawiya town to make room for the expansion of the nearby illegal Eli settlement.

He added that Eli settlement started as a cluster of mobile settler units built on a hill in the area back in 1984, and has ever since continued to expand at the expense of expropriation of Palestinian lands to become one of the largest settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Meanwhile, the so-called al-Quds Planning and Building Committee has announced plans for the construction of more than a hundred settler units in the occupied East al-Quds neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, as the Tel Aviv regime is pressing ahead with its attempts to further Judaize the contested holy city and destroy its Islamic and Christian identities.

The committee on Monday greenlighted the ‘Israeli’ building of 135 settler units in Ma'alot Dafna settlement.

Under the new project, a 5-story building with 26 settler units will be demolished and a 12-story building with 135 units will be built in its place.

The Zionist regime has stepped up its illegal settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds “a flagrant violation under international law.”

Much of the international community regards the ‘Israeli’ settler units in the occupied lands as illegal.

More than 600,000 Zionists occupy more than 230 settlements built since the 1967 ‘Israeli’ occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

All ‘Israeli’ settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.