AL-QUDS (Dispatches) – An anti-settlement watchdog group says Israeli authorities are scheduled to approve or advance the construction of over 6,000 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank in the coming days.
Peace Now said it would be the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a move that could further worsen already soaring tensions linked to the ongoing war in Gaza.
Peace Now said authorities recently approved the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley. The group’s data indicate it was the largest single appropriation approved since the 1993 Oslo accords at the start of the peace process.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Oct. 7, with the Zionist regime carrying out near-daily military raids that often spark deadly gunbattles with Palestinian fighters. Palestinians have also carried out a string of reprisal attacks on Zionists.
The land seizure, which was approved late last month but only publicized on Wednesday, comes after the seizure of 8 square kilometers (roughly 3 square miles) of land in the West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February.
That makes 2024 by far the peak year for Israeli land seizure in the West Bank, Peace Now said.
The parcels are contiguous and located northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the Western-backed Palestinian Authority is headquartered. The Zionist regime has opened them up to being leased to Israelis and prohibited private Palestinian ownership.
The Palestinians view the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank as the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement and most of the international community considers them illegal or illegitimate.
The occupying regime captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Al-Quds in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. The occupying regime’s current administration considers the West Bank to be the historical and religious heartland of the Jewish people and is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
The regime has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Zionist settlers. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule.
The Palestinian Authority administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank but is barred from operating in 60 percent of the territory, where the settlements are located.
Prominent human rights organizations have pointed to the regime’s rule over the West Bank in accusing it of the international crime of apartheid.