On Saturday, the Israeli army confiscated and occupied five Dunams of Palestinian lands in Shoufa village, southeast of Tulkarem, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Morad Droubi, the secretary of the Fateh movement in Shoufa, said the army confiscated the lands, extending from the Shoufa military roadblock to the northern part of the village, near the illegal Avnei Hefetz colony, built on stolen Palestinian lands.
Droubi added that the locals filed appeals when the confiscation orders were issued, but Israeli courts denied them.
The village is subject to constant Israeli violations and escalation by the soldiers and the paramilitary colonizers.
It is worth mentioning that the Avnei colony sits on thousand, illegally confiscated from the Palestinians in Shoufa and several surrounding villages, and is gradually expanding through the theft of more Palestinian lands.
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”.
