WEST BANK, (PIC)
Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their use of military orders as a tool to expand settlements in the West Bank, issuing 114 orders to seize Palestinian land since October 7, 2023, according to the National Bureau for Defending Land and Resisting Settlements.
In its weekly report on Saturday, the bureau said the number of military orders issued during this period was equivalent to the total number issued by Israeli authorities over the past 20 years.
The orders have led to the seizure of around 25,000 dunums of land and the establishment of 53 new settlements, some of them built on land belonging to Palestinian communities that were forcibly displaced, including Ein Samiya and Al-Muarrajat, the report said.
It warned that settlement plans were no longer confined to Area C, but had extended deep into Area A, which is under Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords.
The report also revealed a plan led by settler movements, with support from ministers in the Israeli government, to seize 100 strategic points inside Area A in what they call “Judgment Day,” alongside the Israeli army’s establishment of a permanent military site in part of Jenin.
It said Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was accelerating the implementation of government decisions aimed at channeling funds to settlements ahead of upcoming elections.
These measures include granting tax exemptions to settlers and expanding the classification of “national priority areas” to include settlements in the Jordan Valley and around Gaza.
The report said these steps coincided with Knesset approval for the establishment of six new settlements around Ramallah, as well as the allocation of millions of shekels for the “Jubilee Cave Park” project near the settlement of Ofra.
It added that Israel’s Interior Ministry had granted official codes to four settlement outposts in the West Bank: Asif, Malachei HaShalom, Avia and Yitav. The move paves the way for legalizing the outposts and linking them to government institutions.
According to the report, the move comes as 37 official codes have been granted to settlement outposts over the past six months, amid pressure by the Religious Zionism party to permanently restore settler presence and a religious school inside the Joseph’s Tomb compound in Nablus.
The report also cited Israel’s Haaretz newspaper as saying last month that settlement and displacement projects in the northern West Bank were expanding rapidly and becoming a reality imposed on the ground by force of arms.
Haaretz described the developments as a “revolution” led by settlers with government and military support, aimed at rebuilding and reviving four settlements evacuated under the 2005 disengagement plan.
Regarding field violations over the past week, the bureau documented a series of settler and Israeli army attacks across several West Bank governorates.
These included an attack on the Al-Mahtoush community in Jerusalem, a demolition notice against a home in Silwan, an assault on a family in Umm Al-Khair village, south of al-Khalil, using pepper spray, and demolition notices targeting five homes in Masafer Yatta.
In Bethlehem governorate, the report documented the setting of fires in Khalayel Al-Louz and the construction of a settler road in Al-Jabaa. It also recorded a raid on the Arab Al-Kaabneh community in Ramallah and land bulldozing in Al-Mughayyir and Al-Taybeh.
In the northern West Bank, the report said a child and two brothers were injured in settler attacks in the towns of Awarta and Aqraba in Nablus governorate.
It also documented the smashing of two vehicles belonging to the Asira Al-Qibliya village council, stop-work notices against seven homes in Aba village east of Jenin, and the opening of roads serving the site of the evacuated Ganim settlement.
The report further warned of raids on Palestinian homes, the destruction of surveillance cameras and sabotage targeting water pipelines in the Khirbet Al-Ras Al-Ahmar and Yarza communities in the northern Jordan Valley.