Record increase in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in the past three months

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have expanded at an unprecedented pace since October 7 last year NGO Peace Now.

“Settlers are taking advantage of the war in Gaza to change the reality on the ground and effectively take control of large areas in the Gaza Strip. Area C“, which relates to the 60% of the territory Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and over which Israel has administrative and security control, indicates a Peace Now declaration.

“Three months into the war in Gaza, we are witnessing an unprecedented increase in settlement activities, including the installation of new settlements settler camps, roads, fences and barricades“Adds the NGO, which has been registering the construction of colonies on Palestinian territory since 2012.

According to the organization, they have settled nine new settler camps and established 18 illegal paved roads, Many of them are on private Palestinian territoryduring the past three months: a ‘record figure’.

Moreover, Israeli settlers block Palestinian roads and have returned to them Amonaa settlement that was vacated by court order in 2017 in exchange for financial compensation and the settlement of Amihai.

“The permissive military and political climate enables reckless construction and virtually uncontrolled land grabbing. The result is not only physical damage to Palestinians and their land, but also significant political changes in the West Bank,” Peace Now denounces.

The government of Israel, which includes several governments colonial ministersor very close to the settler movement, and the most right-wing in the country’s history, has been pursuing a policy of settler expansion since last year.

In February, he announced the regularization of nine settlements in the occupied West Bank that had been built without state permission, in retaliation for an attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian killed three Israelis.

In addition, Israel approved the construction of more than 13,000 homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank, a record number that represented an increase of nearly 300% from the previous year.

Protected by international law, the UN considers all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be illegal, but Israel considers colonies established using certain bureaucratic procedures to be legal.

Israel’s legalization of new settlements comes amid the worst spike in violence in the West Bank since the Second Intifada (2000-2005). Israel took control of the occupied West Bank in 1967, during the Six-Day War, and has maintained a long military occupation and colonization of the area since then.

Massacre in Gaza

Meanwhile, the carnage continues in Gaza as at least 162 people were killed and 296 injured in attacks by the Israeli army in the past 24 hours, the Palestinian Strip’s Health Ministry said on Friday.

According to the ministry, 22,600 people have been killed and 57,910 injured in the Israeli military offensive so far.

In this context, the leader of the political wing of Hamas, Ismail Haniye, has indicated that he hopes that the tour made by the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkenfor the Middle East serves to put an end once and for all to Israeli aggression against Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories.

In this sense, he has also expressed the wish that the leaders of the Arab countries where Blinken will stop confirm to Blinken that the stability of the region depends on the issue of the Palestinian cause.

Blinken began his fourth tour in three months in the region on Thursday, which will take him through the Middle East and even Turkey and Greece until January 11. The talks will focus on preventing the conflict from spreading to other parties and accelerating the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.