Israel settlers set up new outpost in Nablus

Israeli settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces this morning set up six mobile homes on privately owned Palestinian land in the village of Al-Laban Al-Sharqiya in the Nablus governorate, as a first step to taking it over.

Israeli bulldozers escorted by occupation forces stormed the area, owned by Mousa Al-Abd Aweis, Abdel-Rahim Noubani and Ahmad Mahmoud Aweis and levelled the land to prepare it for the establishment of the settlement outpost, reported a Wafa correspondent.

According to Mondoweiss, the settlers operate by descending en-masse on different sites, where they then set up tents and mobile caravans before declaring them new settlements.

The outpost was set up by the Israeli government as a punitive measure against the Palestinian neighbours who allegedly shot and killed four Israeli settlers on Tuesday at a petrol station adjacent to the illegal settlement of Eli, between Ramallah and Nablus.

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It comes after the latest report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) which called out Israel for its punitive measures against the relatives of those accused of resistance attacks.

“Punitive demolitions are a form of collective punishment and are illegal under international law, because they target the families of the perpetrators of the attacks or the alleged attacks,” explained OCHA.

Under international law, both the West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied territories. All settlement building is, therefore, illegal.

Nablus is surrounded by more than 40 Israeli Jewish settlements and outposts with settlers continuing to encroach on Palestinian land to expand these illegal settlements and outposts under the protection of occupation forces.

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