On Tuesday, Israeli military bulldozers demolished two rooms and uprooted dozens of trees in the New Nablus area, in Nablus in the occupied West Bank’s northern part.
Local farmer Hamza Al-Hamami reported that several military jeeps, accompanied by a bulldozer, invaded his 500-square-meter land in the New Nablus area.
He added that soldiers demolished two rooms and uprooted 42 trees, beehives, walls, and stone terraces, claiming the construction was unlicensed.
Al-Hamami mentioned that he built the two rooms on his land in 2014 to use as a summer retreat for his family.
However, he received a stop-work order at the beginning of the genocide in Gaza and another order seven days ago, citing construction in Area C of the occupied West Bank.
Under the Oslo Accords that began to be signed in 1993 created Areas A, B, and C in 1995, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) holding “control” over Area A, while Israel and the PA split control of Area B.
Though the PA is in theory responsible for civil life in Area C, including education and health, Israeli authorities have full control over security and administration, including planning and development.
This situation was meant to be temporary. Under Oslo, all areas were to be fully allocated to the Palestinians by 1998, but this agreement never materialized, and the entire West Bank remains occupied by Israel.
Since Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it started targeting Palestinian lands, by illegal confiscating them for military uses and for the construction and expansion of the illegal colonies in direct violation of International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Area C, making up about 61% of the West Bank, includes most Israeli colonies, aside from those in East Jerusalem.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
