WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The occupying regime’s authorities have started plans to confiscate 70 Palestinian homes in the Old City of the southern occupied West Bank governorate of Al-Khalil.
Director of the Al-Khalil Construction Committee Imad Hamdan said the occupying regime plans to hand over the Palestinian homes to Zionist settlers.
Hamdan added: “The Israeli raid of Nasreddine Building is the start of the implementation of the Israeli plan,” reiterating that the Palestinians “are the genuine owners of these homes and shops.”
At the same time, he stressed that Palestinian ownership of these buildings is protected by local and international laws, which guarantee the safe and secure residence of citizens and prevent forced expulsion.
Meanwhile, Palestinian activist in Al-Khalil Issa Amro criticized the Construction Committee’s “weak response” to the occupation plans, stressing: “The start of the implementation of the Israeli plan, disclosed early this year, sounds a dangerous alarm.”
Amro stated: “The forced expulsion of Palestinians out of Nasreddine Building, which is located in the most sensitive places in the Old City, is not an incident to pass without any official action.”
Amro accused the Al-Khalil Construction Committee, a Palestinian government body, of coordinating the theft of Palestinian property with the Zionist regime authorities.
The activist condemned the silence of the Al-Khalil Construction Committee over the demolition of six Palestinian shops by Zionist settlers in the heart of the city a couple of days ago, stating that the committee has a large budget and is able to do much more for the protection of Palestinian property in the city.
Recently, a report by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said 700,000 Zionists are living in 279 settlements across the occupied West Bank, including 14 settlements in occupied East Al-Quds.
The international community regards the settlements – hundreds of which have been built across the West Bank since Tel Aviv’s occupation of the territory in 1967 – as illegal under international law and the Geneva Conventions given that they have been constructed on the occupied territories.
The UN Security Council has condemned the regime’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions. The Palestinians have historically demanded that the West Bank serves as part of their future state with East Al-Quds, which is located inside the territory, as its capital.