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Israeli occupation seizes hundreds of dunams of land from Jenin to Tulkarm

November 20, 2014 at 3:19 pm

Israeli occupation authorities have handed a military order to the council of the Zebda Al-Jadida village in Ya’bad, to the west Jenin, to halt all construction and works currently being carried out, claiming that these lands are under Israeli military control.

The head of the village council, Saleh Amarneh, told Al-Quds newspaper that the area commander of the occupation army handed the village council an order, along with a map indicating all the areas that Palestinian citizens are no longer allowed to use.

According to the map, the areas to be seized cover around 200 square kilometres and are located in the villages of Um Dar, Nazlet-Zeid, Zebda, Al-Khuljan, and other areas, all the way over to the town of Qafen in Tulkarm.

Palestinian news agencies quoted the director general of Jenin’s Ministry of Local Government, Raed Moqbel, as saying that the occupation authorities had already handed over dozens of notifications to citizens in the villages to the west of Ya’bad, even though they all have official documents proving their ownership of the land.

According to Al-Quds, the order read as follows: “Based on an amendment and a military order issued in 2009, thousands of dunams that are cultivated with olive trees have been confiscated, from the area of Um Dar across 3-4 km through to Zeta in Tulkarm, Baqa Al-Sharqiya and Qafen.” The order also states that the owners of the land are prohibited from cultivating it and carrying out any construction work on it.

Moqbel pointed out that this an unfair decision, which aims to seize more land in order to expand settlements, adding that relevant bodies in the Palestinian government are considering taking legal action in order to stop this seizure.