Land grab continues in the south of the West Bank for the benefit of illegal settlements – landowners

The Israeli occupation authorities and settlers joined hands in grabbing Palestinian lands in the south of the West Bank for the benefit of illegal settlements in the area, according to landowners.

Tareq Dhabayneh, an activist and owner of land taken over by the military government, today said Israeli heavy machines have been working on his land and others in the town of Tarqumiya, west of the city of Hebron, over the past two weeks, leveling the land in order to build a road for the nearby settlement of Tillim.

He estimated the area of the land in question to be 2500 dunums belonging to several families.

Dhabayneh said the Israelis escalated their leveling of the land, uprooting trees and preventing the owners from reaching their lands while settlers plant their lands with forest trees to prevent their owners from entering them or using them for planting crops.

Many landowners have received notices from the military government banning them from entering their lands.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military fenced about 30 dunums of Palestinian land it had recently leveled and grabbed in the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem, according to a local activist.

Ahmad Ghazal, an activist, said that the land in question is located near the illegal settlement of Abi Hanahal and the fenced land is intended to expand the industrial zone of the settlement.

Also in Kisan, Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked two women shepherds and their sheep while herding in the village’s open fields, according to Ghazal, who said the settlers, who came from the illegal Ma’ale Amos settlement, injured two sheep and attacked the two sisters who are in their 40s.

The army, he said, forced the sister shepherds to sign papers banning them from herding in that area.

Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency