Illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers reestablished a colonialist outpost on Tuesday atop stolen Palestinian land in the town of ‘Atara, north of Ramallah, in the central part of the occupied West Bank.
Nizar Mughrabi, mayor of ‘Atara, stated that more than 15 colonizers stormed the area of Jabal al-Khirba early Tuesday morning, before setting up two tents.
He added that the colonizers released their cattle and sheep into the surrounding Palestinian lands, effectively seizing the area.
Jabal al-Khirba, spanning approximately 2,000 dunums, is an archaeological site repeatedly targeted by colonizers as part of a broader strategy to forcibly displace Palestinian residents and entrench Israeli colonialist control.
Just a day earlier, dozens of colonizers, accompanied by a bulldozer, invaded Jabal al-Khirba, carving a dirt road into the area and pitching tents before withdrawing in the evening. They returned the following morning to resume their encroachment.
Mughrabi stated that the colonizers have attempted to establish 15 new colonialist outposts in the West Bank, since early July, primarily agricultural and pastoral in nature.
These include five in the Hebron governorate, two each in Salfit, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jericho, and one each in Tubas and Jenin.
On Monday evening, several Palestinians were injured following an assault by the colonizers on the towns of Halhoul and Surif in the Hebron governorate, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Earlier Monday, Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked and forcibly expelled Palestinian shepherds from grazing lands in the al-Himma area of the northern Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank.
On Sunday, Israeli colonizers burned Palestinian property near Salfit, in the central West Bank, and established illegal settlement outposts, while occupation soldiers assaulted an anti-settlement activist south of Hebron in the southern 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”.
