WEST BANK, (PIC)
The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, Muaeed Shaban, has said that Israeli occupation forces and Jewish settlers carried out 1,242 attacks during the month of April.
Shaban explained in the monthly report of the authority on Occupation Violations and Expansionist Measures that Israeli occupation forces carried out 895 attacks, while settlers carried out 347 attacks, concentrated in the Nablus governorate with 202 attacks, al-Khalil governorate with 188 attacks, and Ramallah governorate with 186 attacks.
Martyrs and dozens of houses torched in settlers’ attacks
The report indicated that settlers’ attacks focused on the Nablus governorate with 118 attacks, Ramallah governorate with 83 attacks, and al-Khalil governorate with 34 attacks, resulting in the martyrdom of five citizens.
The report also highlighted that the month of April witnessed a dangerous escalation in terrorist attacks by settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, targeting civilians in 36 Palestinian towns and villages from north to south. These attacks resulted in the complete burning of 36 houses and partial burning of 33 others, as well as the partial and complete burning of more than 57 vehicles, in addition to significant destruction of properties and citizens’ facilities.
Shaban clarified that the magnitude of the settler terrorist attacks indicates the extent of the authorities granted to them by the official Israeli occupation authorities. The instructions that came out of the Israeli cabinet to the settlers to carry out the attacks were issued in parallel with other instructions to the army to provide protection to them during their implementation. This aligns with another alignment of the occupation state behind the terrorist settler militias, posing a new challenge to all states, organizations, and international bodies that have condemned Israeli settlement terrorism and imposed sanctions on it.
Structural settlement plans
The report also pointed out that the occupation authorities seized about 172 dunums of land belonging to citizens in the village of Arab al-Ta’amra east of Bethlehem to expand the borders of a Jewish-only settlement established on the lands of citizens in the Akban area in the village of Al-Ta’amra.
In the same context, the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority explained that the occupation authorities are studying 19 new structural plans for settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and approved 7 of them, 5 in Jerusalem, in addition to two plans in the West Bank specifically for the benefit of the settlements of Kfar Etzion in Bethlehem governorate and Al-Kanah in Salfit governorate.
The occupation authorities also deposited 12 plans, 5 of them in Jerusalem and 7 in the West Bank, to build 2,288 new settlement units on 3,036 dunums of citizens’ lands.
The authority also indicated that the occupation authorities issued a tender for the construction of 1,047 settlement units between the neighborhoods of Beit Safafa and Sur Baher within Jerusalem.
Legalization of 5 new settlement outposts
The extremist Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, announced the legalization of 5 settlement outposts out of 10 outposts that the occupation announced its intention to legalize and transform them into official settlements that receive financial allocations for the development of a basic network of water, electricity, and roads for their benefit.
Demolition of 33 houses and structures
The authority’s report also indicated that the occupation authorities carried out 28 demolition operations during April, targeting 33 structures, including 8 inhabited houses, 3 uninhabited houses, 5 agricultural structures, and others, concentrated in the governorates of Jerusalem, Tulkarem, Jericho, and al-Khalil. They also notified the demolition of 18 houses and structures in the governorates of Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Salfit, and al-Khalil.
