Israel to build 164 more settlement units in occupied West Bank

Israel’s Settlement Council in the occupied West Bank has announced the development of 164 new housing units in Neve Daniel settlement to the west of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, Quds Press has reported.

“This settlement expansion is part of the construction of a new settlers’ compound inside the illegal settlement,” explained the Director of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, Hassan Breijah. “It is at the expense of land belonging to the Palestinians in Al Khader and Nahalin neighbourhoods.”

The Israeli occupation authorities will, he pointed out, appropriate dozens of acres of agricultural land to build the new settlement project. It is part of Israel’s expansion of the city of Jerusalem, which it now calls “Greater Jerusalem” and which bites deep into occupied Palestinian territory.

Exploiting the situation under cover of the coronavirus pandemic, the Jewish settlers have, said Breijah, allocated swathes of Palestinians land for settlement projects. All of this, he added, is being done under the protection of the Israeli occupation army.

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