Israel annexes land used for military training

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman is slated to sign a deal to annex Palestinian land used for military training for decades to the Israeli settlement of El’ad, Israel Hayoum revealed yesterday.

Lieberman is to sign the deal on Thursday in the presence of heads of religious parliamentarian blocs, MKs and heads of Israeli municipalities.

The land, according to Israel Hayoum, has been used as a military training site for the Israeli army for decades, noting that former Israeli defence ministers refused to annex it to the settlement.

Last week the Israeli cabinet approved 3,600 new settlement units in El’ad for the Israeli religious community or Haredi Jews.

Read: Israel demolishes Palestinians homes to expand settlements

The construction of El’ad started in the 1990s when then Israeli housing minister Ariel Sharon approved building a series of settlements along the sea line with the West Bank. It is a couple of kilometres away from the Arab-populated cities of Kafr Qasim and the southern part of The Triangle.

The Israeli Minister of Internal Security previously promised to build thousands of settlement units for the religious settlers. He considered this deal historic as it would double the size of the settlement and solve the residential problem for the Haredim.
Anadolu said that thousands of Arab residential units are under threat of being demolished under the pretext that they do not have the correct license.