Illegal Israeli colonizers began, on Thursday, to construct a settlement outpost in the Al-Sawahrah Al-Sharqiya village, east of occupied Jerusalem, and erected a barracks and installed childrens’ play equipment in the area.
Local sources reported that the settlers occupied the “Sat al-Ghazala” area, an area of about 250 dunams, owned in part by the Abu Hussein family.
One of the owners of the land, Muhammad Abu Hussein, stated that he and his family were shocked to see that the colonizers had set up barracks and placed children’s toys in the area.
Abu Hussein added that dozens of armed settlers stormed the area close to the illegal “Kedar” settlement which was established on the Palestinian-owned lands of the town of Abu Dis, east of occupied Jerusalem.
He suggested that the colonizers plan to link the “Kedar” colony to the a”Boaz” colony, built on the expropriated Palestinian lands of Abu Dis and Al-Sawahrah Al-Sharqiya.
According to a report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was presented to the Human Rights Council, “From 2012 to 2022, the population of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, had grown from 520,000 to over 700,000. These settlers lived illegally in 279 Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank, including 14 settlements in the occupied East Jerusalem, with a total population of more than 229,000 people. At least 147 of these settlements were outposts, illegal even under Israeli domestic law.”
All settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal under International Humanitarian Law, as stipulated in Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“The Occupying Power [ISRAEL] shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies [PALESTINE].”
– Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
