On Thursday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers installed an outpost on lands near Za’tara town, east of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
Hasan Breijiyya, the head of the Bethlehem office of the Wall & colonization Resistance Commission, said a group of paramilitary colonizers invaded lands in the Natural Reserve area east of Bethlehem.
Breijiyya added that the colonizers installed several tents and raised Israeli flags to establish their new illegal outpost on the stolen lands.
He also said that the new outpost is part of the constant attempt to occupy more lands, especially to control the natural reserve, after denying the Palestinians access to it.
Israeli soldiers arrive in the area and setup roadblocks before preventing the Palestinians from reaching the 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”.
