On Monday, October 31, Israeli officials issued a military order to seize over 616 dunams (152 acres) of private Palestinian land in the villages of Qaryout and al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya near Nablus in the occupied West Bank in order to expand the illegal Israeli settlement of Eli, Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Wafa quoted activist Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the occupied territories, who said the order to appropriate Palestinian land was issued suddenly which left several people complaining about their land being seized overnight by the occupation authorities.
A Palestinian farmer arrived to his land in order to pick his olives only to find out that a settler from the illegal Israeli settlement of Eli stole the land, seized it, uprooted the trees in it and turned it into a park for his own personal use
More: https://t.co/8YzVOhu5le pic.twitter.com/9p8SMEB61v
— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) October 31, 2022
The Eli settlement is located near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank. It started as a cluster of mobile homes on a hill in the area in 1984 and expanded gradually with the expropriation of more and more Palestinian land. It has now become one of the largest settlements inside the occupied West Bank with a population of around 5,000.
Israeli security forces often prevent local Palestinians from accessing their farms and lands near the settlement. On Monday too, several such cases of Israeli security forces attacking Palestinians were reported in the local media.
#Israel bans Palestinian farmers from their land, destroy 180 olive trees https://t.co/Jfz2G6AMLO
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) October 31, 2022
Meanwhile, in occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli controlled al-Quds Planning and Building committee decided on Monday to build 135 settler units in the Palestinian locality of Sheikh Jarrah.
Like a cancer that spreads throughout the body, Israeli occupation continues expanding their control of the Palestinian lands!
Israeli municipality in Jerusalem approves building new 135 housing units in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/b2kH7b56py
— Days Of Palestine (@days_palestine) October 31, 2022
The people in Sheikh Jarrah have been struggling to save the locality from Israeli aggression for over a year now and resisting the occupation’s attempts to displace Palestinians using force and intimidation.
All Israeli construction inside occupied Palestinian territories is illegal according to the fourth Geneva Convention related to occupied territories. It also violates UN Security Council resolution 2234, which specifically calls Israeli settlement expansion inside the occupied territories “violations of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions.”
Despite international opposition and UN resolutions, Israel has been expanding its illegal settlements in the occupied territories since 1967. Today, over 700,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements in these territories.
These settlements have been built illegally using brutal force to displace Palestinians living in the areas. In the last few years, the rate of expansion of Israeli settlements has increased manifold. Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem have been forced out from localities such as Masafer Yatta, Sheikh Jarrah, and Silwan, among others, to make way for illegal Israeli settlements.
Bedouins living in the Negev (al-Naqab) desert have also been displaced to make way for Israeli settlements.
