Israel seizes land, isolating al-Quds from rest of West Bank

Israel has confiscated a new piece of Palestinian land to expand a project, which could isolate al-Quds from the rest of the West Bank, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reports.

Quoting anti-settlement activists, the agency reported on Thursday that the land was seized to expand a project near the city of Ariha in the occupied West Bank.

The project initiated first in 2012 has been aimed at isolating al-Quds from the rest of the West Bank and disrupting the territorial contiguity of various parts of the occupied region.

Local residents in the village of Sawahera al-Sharqiya with ownership documents were shocked by the seizure, Wafa said.

Muayyad Shaaban, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission, denounced in a strongly-worded statement the latest Israeli land grab. 

The expropriation order, he said, was aimed imposing a fait accompli on the land by changing its features, and dividing the West Bank further and turning it into unconnected cantons, thus preventing the establishment of a geographically contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state.

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Israel

Israel uses the Absentee Property Law to claim the lands it forced the Palestinians to abandon in the 1948 and 1967. Palestinian lands are also confiscated through coercive measures in the name of archaeological and tourism purposes.

Throughout years, Israel has frequently demolished Palestinian homes, claiming that the structures have been built without permits, which are nearly impossible to obtain.

The Tel Aviv regime even orders the Palestinian owners to tear down their own homes or pay the demolition costs to the municipality.

Israel also restricts Palestinians’ freedom of movement through complex networks of checkpoints, settler-only roads and various other barriers.

The theft of land across the occupied territories has pushed residents into a crowded enclave surrounded by walls, settlements, and military installations.

Nearly 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Israeli forces demolish more Palestinian structures in al-Quds

In the latest provocation against Palestinians, Israel has demolished at least two Palestinian houses and a commercial unit in the occupied East al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has in several resolutions condemned Tel Aviv’s settlement projects in the occupied Palestinian lands.

In May last year, Israel's land grab in the occupied West Bank sparked a war between the military and Palestinian resistance groups in the Gaza Strip that lasted 11 days.

During the war, Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza killed over 250 Palestinians, including 66 children.

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