OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PIC)– Israeli media sources said plans for a new settlement neighborhood in the Jewish Ariel settlement in Nablus West Bank were under way as part of a future plan to expand the settlement until it surrounds the neighboring city of Salfit.
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported Tuesday that the plan includes 800 new residential units intended to expand the Ariel settlement.
The plan will be launched if approved by the Ariel municipality planning and housing committee the paper added claiming that it does not require approval by the war ministry as the land was “owned by the state and other private Jewish owners.”
In separate incidents Israeli soldiers detained four farmers for four hours under the hot sun in the northern Al-Khalil village of Beit Ummar witnesses told the PIC.
The detainees were released after they were informed that they would be jailed if they returned to the land amid claims that the territory was Israeli-owned.
The area located along the Jewish Beit Ain settlement is a hotspot for the expulsion of farmers.
On a similar note a gang of Jewish settlers began Tuesday hewing a settlement road in the Wadi Al Hussein area of Al-Khalil’s old town.
The land of two Palestinian families were affected and one Palestinian man assaulted during the operation.
In other developments Israeli troops alongside Jews from the Maskiot settlement in the northern Jordan Valley annexed Tuesday to the nearby settlement around 200 dunums of land privately owned by Palestinians in the Ain Al Halwa area.
Locals said the Israeli army has placed a long-time blockade on the Ain al Halwa area declaring it a closed military zone.
Residents have been deported from their land and their tin homes destroyed several times during attempts by Israeli forces to take full control of the area.
