Israeli authorities, on Tuesday, handed a structural blueprint to the local council of Qaryout, to the south of Nablus, aimed at confiscating 600 dunums of land belonging to local villagers.Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said the confiscation is for infrastructural purposes and for the construction of parking lots for settlers’ advantage, according to WAFA.
He described the structural blueprint as the “most serious” than the land confiscation decision.
Also on Tuesday, AFP reports that the Israeli government is pushing tenders for 708 homes in the illegal Gilo settlement of occupied East Jerusalem, in an attempt by the ministry of housing to ‘forcefully undermine the peace process’ according to Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran.
Israel has begun work on over 10,500 housing units in illegal settlements while simultaneously demolishing 146 Palestinian homes since peace talks began in July.
Since 1967, Israel has established over 150 settlements and some 100 outposts in the occupied West Bank, with a settler population of 520,000, according to OCHA.
Over 43 percent of land in the occupied West Bank is allocated to settlement local and regional councils.
