![Israeli forces take security measures at Qalandia checkpoint between the northern West Bank and Jerusalem as Palestinians on their way to cross the border and perform Friday prayer at Al Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramadan on March 29, 2024 [Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/AA-20240329-34123373-34123352-CROSSINGS_IN_RAMALLAH_TO_JERUSALEM_FOR_FRIDAY_PRAYER_AT_AQSA_MOSQUE.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The Israeli occupation authorities seized 109 acres of Palestinian land on Tuesday in the villages of Shabtain, Deir Ammar and Deir Qadis to the west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
“The process of seizing land under the pretext that it is ‘state land’ aims to tighten control over all the land surrounding the [illegal] Israeli settlements of Nili and Naale which are built on Palestinian land,” explained the Palestinian Authority-affiliated Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission in a media statement. “The targeted area constitutes a group of plots surrounding the two aforementioned settlements, and it completes the areas that the occupying state has seized in recent years.”
According to the Commission, the “frenzied” seizure of more Palestinian land reveals the occupation state’s “real intentions” that have become clear to the whole world regarding changes to Palestinian geography. “The occupation authorities want to eliminate the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state with contiguity between all of its territories.”
At the beginning July, the occupation authorities approved the confiscation of more than 3,100 acres of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank. According to Israeli NGO Peace Now, this was “the largest land grab in three decades.”
The organisation added: “The area of the region covered by the announcement is the largest since the 1993 Oslo Accords, and the year 2024 is considered the peak year in which certain areas have been confiscated and declared as state land.”
International law is clear that the West Bank and Jerusalem are occupied Palestinian territories, and the construction and expansion of settlements in such territories is illegal. Indeed, the UN has warned that the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is a war crime and risks eliminating “any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian State.”
READ: Israel raids money exchange stores in occupied West Bank
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