On Monday, the Israeli occupation authorities announced the illegal annexation of 546 Dunams of private Palestinian lands, northeast of Salfit, in the occupied West Bank’s central part.
The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission said in a report that the annexation order includes 166.42 dunams, adding to previous seizure decisions issued by the Israeli occupation authorities in the 1970s, 1980s, and 2007 to seize 379 dunams, with the activation of the previous order Monday, bringing the total area of land seized to 546.42 dunams.
Wael Abu Madhi, head of the Yasuf village council, stated that the occupation forces issued an “expropriation order” to seize 166.42 dunams of citizens’ lands in the villages of Yasuf, Marda, Kifl Haris, and Jamma’in, aimed at expanding the “Trans-Samaria 505” colonialist settler road, extending from the Za’tara military roadblock to the Kifl Haris roundabout.
Abu Madhi He pointed out that the lands to be seized include areas in Kifl Haris: Basin No. (6) in the areas of Khallet Ibn Ahmad, Al-Khirba, Al-Wajeh Al-Qibli, Ar-Ras, and Al-Dweir; Basin No. (3) in the areas of Khallet Al-Kibra, Khallet Al-Lahham, Kafayef Asfour, Wadi Qasim, and Kafayef Al-Abhar in Marda; and Basin No. (4) in the Al-Misbah area.
In Jamma’in: Basin No. (2) in the Sha’b Al-Hariq area, and in Wadi Marda: Basin No. (3) in the areas of Hariq Al-‘Oweil and Al-Khalla.
The decision also includes Basin No. (2) in the Khallet Al-Foulah area in Huwwara, and in Yasuf: Basin No. (2) in the Za’tara area, Basin No. (12) in the Jabal Abu Al-Sweid area, and Basin No. (14) in the Jafri area.
On Monday evening, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers uprooted many Palestinian olive trees in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
The area is subject to constant Israeli violations by the soldiers and the colonizers who also uproot orchards and farmlands, and force the famers to leave, in addition to physical assaults and the confiscation and demolition of their property.
In related news, Israeli soldiers demolished a mosque and several structures in the Arab Ara’ra Bedouin community, near Jaba’ town, east of the occupied capital, Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
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”.
Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute, ‘the transfer, directly or indirectly, by an occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory’ are unlawful.
