An Israeli settler, on Monday, exploited the lockdown imposed in the occupied territories to raze Palestinian land between Rafat and Qalandia towns, northwest of Jerusalem, said a municipal source.
Mayor of Qalandia, Ra’fat Awad told Palestinian WAFA News Agency that the illegal colonist razed a tract of Palestinian-owned land between the aforementioned towns, planted it with saplings and erected a fence around it, before being spotted and repelled by staff from the Jerusalem Governor’s Office.
Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Executive Committee member, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, condemned Israel for its accelerated annexation of Palestinian land.
Dr. Ashrawi tweeted “As we are in lockdown in Palestine and the settlers are on the rampage, Israel should take back its settlers and keep them there. It should release our vulnerable prisoners.”
Meanwhile, Director of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Commission, Hassan Breijah said that settlers constructed and paved a settler-only road and set up several mobile homes on Palestinian-owned land in Khallet An-Nahleh, south of Bethlehem.
