A group of Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba,
east of the West Bank city of Hebron, started to open a new road to
connect the settlement with the Ibrahimi mosque (Tomb of Patriarchs) in
the city of Hebron, Wednesday afternoon.
The settlers, protected by the Israeli army, started to bulldoze lands and uproot olive trees that belong to local Palestinian residents in preparation for the opening of the road that settlers call the 'worshippers road'.
Local residents said that the area they are bulldozing is located to the east of the city and the settlers have already uprooted 25 olive trees, they also added that the residents along with the local committee against the wall went to the Israeli high court of justice and had a court diction not to destroy their land and to open this road early this year.
The army has closed the area since the morning and did not allow land owners or residents to go in or out of the area, stating that this was done as a 'security measure' in order to protect the settlers.
All Israeli settlements on Palestinian land have been declared illegal under international law. The construction of this road will displace dozens of Palestinians, destroy hundreds of dunams of farmland and ancient orchards, and criscross Palestinian neighborhoods, imprisoning the local residents into caged-in areas 'for the protection' of the settlers living illegally on their land.
There are approximately 5,000 Israeli settlers living illegally in the Hebron area, and a massive Israeli military force is deployed there to 'protect the settlers' as they continue to illegally seize more and more land from the 250,000 Palestinians living in the town.
