Israeli authorities have announced the seizure of hundreds of acres of private Palestinian land in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, as the Tel Aviv regime goes ahead with land expropriation and settlement construction policies in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions. RNA - Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported that Israeli officials confiscated some 1,500 dunams (more than 370 acres) of land in the city of Dura, located eleven kilometers southwest of al-Khalil, on Thursday, enforcing a decision issued in 1987 to seize three plots of land there under the pretext that they belong to the Israeli regime.
The report added that the seized plots are inhabited by hundreds of Palestinian families, and several agricultural structures are built on them. Part of the land is also planted with olive and almond trees and is located within the boundaries of Dura Municipality.
Salah Shalaldeh, member of the legal department at the Anti-Wall, Anti-Settlements Commission, told Wafa that the land was considered Israeli-owned by a military order, and Israeli military authorities decided to enforce its confiscation on July 31.
He said his commission met with the owners of the land to discuss what was required to file a complaint against the seizure order.
Shalaldeh added that part of the land falls within Area B, which makes up 22 percent of the occupied West Bank and is under the joint civilian control of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli security control, and owners have deeds proving their ownership of the land in question.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Less than a month before US President Donald Trump took office, the United Nations Security Council in December 2016 adopted Resolution 2334, calling on Israel to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem” al-Quds.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.
847/94