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Israel razes largest Canaanite cemetery in West Bank

July 16, 2021 at 11:01 am

The Israeli-run Jerusalem Municipality team along with Israeli soldiers and bulldozers demolish the wall and staircase in the northern part of the Al-Yusufiye Cemetery to make a garden in the area, in Jerusalem on 14 December 2020. [Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli occupation forces yesterday bulldozed the largest Canaanite cemetery in Palestine, located in Al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Information Centre reports.

Hassan Brijieh, the director of the Office of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, said that the Israeli reports indicated that the occupation used bulldozers to raze the cemetery during the expansion works of bypass road No. 60 connecting Jerusalem and Hebron. The cemetery is estimated at four dunums (1 acre) in the area of Khilat Ein Al Asafir, south of Khader.

Brijieh stressed that this is a blatant attack on Palestinian antiquities according to international law and is considered a war crime against the Palestinian people and their history.

The Israeli occupation authorities are trying to control the arable lands in Khader by building the Kfar Etzion settlement on it.

All settlements are illegal under international law.

READ: Israel demolishes Bedouin homes, seizes solar power units in the West Bank