Occupied Jerusalem - SANA
The National Bureau for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance of the Palestine Liberation Organization confirmed that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to expand settlement operations in the occupied West Bank and are using the remaining time for the administration of the outgoing US President Donald Trump to impose new facts on the ground that undermine any opportunity to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
Ma'an News Agency quoted the office's weekly report issued today as saying that the occupation authorities have stepped up the implementation of settlement plans in the occupied West Bank under Trump, where in the first three years of his presidency they established about 21,000 new settlement units on Palestinian lands and in 2020 they stepped up the implementation of their Judaization settlement plans. Especially in occupied Jerusalem, where the occupation announced plans to establish more than 20 thousand settlement units on its lands, threatening to separate them from the rest of the West Bank cities and towns, in addition to announcing plans to establish hundreds of settlement units in Bethlehem and Hebron and to seize large areas of Palestinian lands in Nablus and the northern Jordan Valley to expand Settlement operations and the implementation of annexation plans stipulated in the so-called "Deal of the Century" aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.
The report pointed out that in the last week of 2020, the occupation forces razed tracts of Palestinian land in Al-Shuhada Street in the center of Hebron and demolished several homes and commercial establishments in the towns of Yatta and Susya, south of the city, two commercial establishments in the eastern village of Laban in Nablus, a house in the town of Haris in Salfit, and three houses. In al-Baqi’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley, notices of demolition of four homes and a number of agricultural facilities in the village of Taanak, west of Jenin, a school, and a house in the Hammamat al-Malih area in the northern Jordan Valley, while notifications were delivered to evacuate several homes in Batn al-Hawa neighborhood in Silwan town, south of al-Aqsa Mosque.
The report indicated that the occupation forces uprooted 350 olive trees in the Al-Nuweima area in the northern Jordan Valley. They also uprooted 300 olive trees and razed 70 dunums of Palestinian land in the village of Al-Jabaa in Bethlehem and seized hundreds of dunums planted with olives in the village of Al-Walaja, northwest of the city. The occupation forces also prevented Palestinian farmers. From entering their lands in the towns of Jalud and Qaryut, south of Nablus.
The report indicated that settlers continue their attacks on cities and towns in the West Bank with the protection of the occupation forces, as they stormed the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem and attacked Palestinian homes and vehicles. They also uprooted 300 olive trees and bulldozed 14 dunums of Palestinian land in the village of Haris in Salfit to expand the settlement established in the area and stormed The archaeological site of Khan al-Laban in the Eastern Laban village in Nablus.