WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s authorities are planning to confiscate dozens of acres of private Palestinian land in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank, as the occupying regime goes ahead with land expropriation and settlement construction policies in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions.
Anti-settlement activist Mohammed Abu al-Sheikh was quoted by Wafa news agency as saying on Sunday that regime officials have drawn up a plan to expand a road near Alfei Menashe settlement, which lies south of the city of Qalqiliya, as a prelude to seizure of new Palestinian land for the purpose of settlement expansion.
Sheikh added that the plan will result in the seizure of dozens of acres of private Palestinian land.
On December 1, Zionist war minister Naftali Bennett announced a controversial plan to construct a new illegal settlement in the place of a wholesale market complex in the Old City of al-Khalil.
According to the Zionist minister, the planned project would "double” the number of illegal settlers in the city, which is a flash point of clashes between Palestinians and settlers.
Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper Israel Hayom reported on November 28 that Zionist regime officials were planning to construct thousands of new settler units near al-Quds.
The report added that the regime’s ministry of construction and housing was working on a project on the territory of the abandoned Qalandiya Airport in order to expand Atarot settlement, which lies north of al-Quds.
It added that the plan included the construction of 11,000 settler units on an area of nearly 600 dunams (148.2 acres), and stretched from the non-operational regional airport to Qalandiya checkpoint.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.
The UN Security Council has condemned the regime’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.