On Monday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers burnt Palestinian palm trees in Burqa town, northwest of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Media sources said many colonizers infiltrated a Palestinian cemetery and burnt several trees on the property.
They added that the colonizers came from the site of the evacuated Homesh illegal colony and burnt the trees in the cemetery, leading to protests.
Israeli soldiers invaded the area, firing live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, and gas bombs at the Palestinians.
The town has been subject to escalating Israeli violations, especially after the fanatic Israeli government, including colonizers, decided to allow the “return of the colonizers to Homesh,” which was evacuated in 2005.
In March of this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yuav Gallant authorized the return and reconstruction of the former colony, which was built on stolen Palestinian lands.
The ‘authorization’ allowed the colonizers to return to the few smaller colonies evacuated as part of the Disengagement Plan of the year 2005.
Israeli Jerusalem Post reported Monday that several Homesh Yeshiva students installed a permanent building for their yeshiva in Homesh.
The Jerusalem Post added that earlier this month, Gallant ordered the Israeli Army’s “Central Command” head, Yehuda Fox, to officially allow the colonizers’ return to Homesh, Ganim, Kadim, and Sa-Nur colonies.
Israeli Human Rights NGO Yesh Din said allowing the Yeshiva in Homesh deprives the Palestinians access to their lands and continues the dispossession of their lands.
Yesh Din added, “Instead of the immediate evacuation of the Homesh outpost, Israel is granting a prize to trespassing criminals.”
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, and 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.”