The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) declared its intention to seize hundreds of dunums of Palestinian lands from the villages of Burin Madama and Asira al-Qibliya south of Nablus to expand the Yitzhar settlement.
Ghassan Daghlas an official monitoring the settlement activity in the northern West Bank said that IOA delivered notices on Monday regarding the confiscation of more lands from the areas of: Al-Marj and Jabal Al-Nathr in Burin Bab al-Marj Khallat al-Marj and al-Aqdah in Madama and Lahif Salman and Al-Aqdah in Asira al-Qibliya. This measure aims at making way for expanding Yitzhar settlement building new settlement units and opening a road serving settlers he added.
Daghlas added that the occupation authority is considering the Yitzhar settlement as a town and aims to change the classification of lands from agricultural to residential in the interest of urban expansion. This threatens the confiscation of more lands and more restrictions on the residents of the southern countryside of Nablus he elaborated.
The IOA had established about 503 settlement outposts in the occupied Palestinian territories 474 of which are in the West Bank and 29 in Jerusalem. These areas constitute more than 46% of the total area of the West Bank in which about 800000 Jewish settlers live.
