‘zionist israel to confiscate West Bank land’

The Israeli regime has announced plans to illegally confiscate about 100 acres of Palestinian land in east of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Press TV reports.

The orders were issued to Palestinian municipalities in the villages of Awarta and Rujaib in order to annex the land for an Israeli settlement.

The head of the village council said that the move was part of Israel’s ongoing policy of Palestinian land confiscation and Israel has managed to bypass the law by claiming the land for military purposes.

“The act of confiscating the land for the settlers is an ongoing occurrence. We received the military order from the commander of the Israeli military. Their excuse was that it was for military purposes in order to bypass the international law and instead adhere to their military law,” said Salem Awad, president of the Local Council.

The village of Awarta has been under siege and subjected to constant military raids by the Israeli army for 18 months.

The villagers were also subjected to collective punishments following the brutal murder of a settler family from a nearby settlement in March 2011, which led to the arrest of two Palestinian teenagers, although, no evidence has of yet proven them guilty.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbids construction on occupied lands.