Israeli occupation forces issued a new military order on Tuesday to seize dozens of dunams of Palestinian‑owned land east of Tubas, further expanding the army’s control over agricultural areas in the northern Jordan Valley.
Mutaz Bisharat, the official in charge of the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission in Tubas, said the order targets 42 dunams of land belonging to residents of Tayasir, under the pretext of allocating the area for so‑called “military purposes.”
Bisharat noted that the lands in question form part of essential agricultural and grazing zones relied upon by local families, adding that the order fits into a broader Israeli effort to tighten military and colonial control over the eastern parts of the governorate.
He stressed that such military orders are routinely used to convert Palestinian lands into closed military zones, restricting access, displacing families, and facilitating further expansion by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers.
Also Tuesday, Israeli authorities issued a new military order to seize 300 dunams of Palestinian‑owned land in the Jabal al‑Freydis area on the lands of Arab al‑Ta’amra, east of Bethlehem, under the pretexts of “public use” and “developing the archaeological site.”
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 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
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”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
