Occupied Jerusalem-SANA
During the past two days, the Israeli occupation demolished dozens of Palestinian homes and facilities in occupied Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and Bethlehem in the West Bank, taking advantage of the silence of the international community towards the aggravating suffering of the Palestinians and ignoring their continuous demands to take practical steps that obligate the occupation to stop the demolitions, which is a crime of ethnic cleansing in accordance with international laws and norms.
48 families were displaced by the occupation last Wednesday and demolished their homes in Khirbet Ibziq in the northern Jordan Valley, as well as their school and the only health clinic in it.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the escalation of the Israeli occupation’s demolitions and seizure of Palestinian lands, calling on the international community to break its silence and take “decisive” measures to stop the occupation’s crimes against the Palestinians.
Moataz Bisharat, the official in charge of the file of settlement resistance in the Jordan Valley, confirmed in a statement to SANA reporter that the occupation seizes 261,000 dunums of Palestinian lands in the Jordan Valley, which are fertile agricultural lands rich in antiquities, and systematically destroys all the necessities of life in it to empty it of the Palestinian presence and implement colonial annexation plans.
Bisharat pointed out that the area of Khirbet Ibziq is 45,000 dunams and is located near the apartheid wall, indicating that its seizure enables the occupation to cut the geographical connection between the Jordan Valley and the rest of the West Bank and to connect the settlement outposts built on the lands of the Jordan Valley and the Palestinian territories occupied in 1948.
The expert in settlement affairs, Aref Daraghmeh, explained that the Jordan Valley, which constitutes 28 percent of the West Bank, is facing a fierce Judaization war. Since the beginning of this year, the occupation has demolished 231 homes and facilities, and handed notices to demolish 320 homes and other facilities during the coming period. It also seized 35 water wells to deprive the Palestinians. from cultivating their lands with the aim of restricting them and displacing them.
Daraghmeh pointed out that the occupation established 36 settlement outposts on the lands of the Jordan Valley and is constantly expanding them to isolate the Palestinian villages and towns in the area from each other, stressing that the Palestinians are facing the occupation steadily and will fail all its attempts to uproot them from their land.
The situation in occupied Jerusalem is no different from the situation in the northern Jordan Valley, where the occupation continues to implement its plans to displace its people, sometimes by demolishing their homes or handing them over to settlers, and sometimes by cutting off their livelihoods. In the town of Hizma, north of the city, the occupation demolished 18 shops two days ago.
A spokesman for the people of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem, Fakhri Abu Diab, stated that the town of Hizma has a strategic geographical location, as it is located on the road between Jerusalem, Ramallah and Nablus, pointing out that the occupation is trying to seize it to link the settlements established on the lands of Ramallah and Nablus with Jerusalem and implement annexation plans.
Abu Diab indicated that during the past two months, the occupation demolished 48 homes and notified the demolition of 890 homes and facilities in occupied Jerusalem, calling on the international community to compel the occupation authorities to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy and the rules of international law and to stop the crimes of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing it is committing against the Palestinians.
While the occupation demolishes Palestinian homes and facilities, it builds hundreds of settlement units on their lands in the city of Bethlehem. Hassan Breijeh, director of the Office of the Resistance of the Wall and Settlement Commission in Bethlehem, explained that the occupation demolished a number of agricultural facilities in the village of Wadi Rahal, south of the city, with the aim of expanding settlement operations in the village. A plan to establish 510 settlement units on the lands of the towns of Beit Fajjar and Kisan in the south as well. It also bulldozes large areas of Palestinian lands to build roads linking the settlements established on the city's lands and besiege the Palestinian villages and towns in preparation for the displacement of their people.
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, said that the occupation is demolishing the homes and facilities of Palestinians in the West Bank and seizing 85 percent of water sources and natural resources to deprive the Palestinian people of all the necessities of life, stressing that no matter what the crimes of the occupation, the Palestinians will continue to stand firm and resist in defense of their land, existence and their legitimate rights. .
Mohammed Abu Shabab