News / Palestine

Israel to grab more land in West Bank: Report

Wednesday, 20 January 2016 6:02 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 20 January 2016 6:03 AM ]

This photo shows Israeli illegal settlements under construction in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) on January 15, 2016. ©AFP

In another act of land grab, Israel is planning to seize hundreds of acres of Palestinian agricultural land to expand its illegal settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, says a report.

According to a report by the Times of Israel, the Tel Aviv regime is to confiscate 370 acres of agricultural land near the Palestinian city of Jericho in the West Bank over the coming weeks.

According to the report, the planned land grab, which will be the largest since August 2014, is expected to trigger harsh criticism from the European Union (EU) and the Palestinian Authority.

On Monday, the EU unanimously condemned the Israeli regime’s illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories.

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro also said on Monday that the White House was “concerned and perplexed” by Israel’s settlement policy, which he said raised “honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions.”

Palestinians gather in front of Israeli policemen to demonstrate against the confiscation of their land in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh near Ramallah, September 4, 2015.

The United Nations (UN) and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority wants the West Bank as part of its future independent state, with East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

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