KUALA LUMPUR – While attention is focused on Israel’s destruction of Gaza, the last three months since its latest war on Palestine began have seen an increase in the number of new Israeli settlements in the West Bank, an Israel-based peace group said.
Peace Now, a public pressure group that supports a two-state solution and an end to the occupation of Palestinian areas, has released a fresh report on Jewish settlements, which records nine new outposts in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict on October 7.
Additionally, it recorded 18 new roads built and paved by settlers and a revival of a previous outpost, Amona, that was evacuated in 2017 following a court order.
Settlers in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, are also closing Palestinian traffic routes in defiance of military orders and building more fences.
A significant portion of the new outposts and roads are on private Palestinian land, Peace Now said in its report.
“The three months of war in Gaza are being exploited by settlers to establish facts on the ground and effectively take control of extensive areas in Area C.
“Settlers decide where to build roads and outposts continuously, disregarding the legal status of the land.
“They persist in constructing outposts on private Palestinian lands, defining open areas, and restricting Palestinian movement in the West Bank,” Peace Now’s report said.
These actions, it added, have been aided or enabled by the “permissive military and political environment”.
“(They) allow reckless construction and land seizure almost unchecked, with minimal adherence to the law. The result is not only physical harm to Palestinians and their lands but also a significant political shift in the West Bank.”
The West Bank, partially controlled by Hamas’ political rival, the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, is home to around three million Palestinians and 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Violence has accompanied settlement expansion in the West Bank since October 7, when Hamas, which controls Gaza, attacked areas in Israel, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostages.
Since then until early last month, Israeli settler violence against West Bank Palestinians has seen 266 killed and more than 3,300 injured, according to figures by the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Settlers are also aided by the Israeli military in seizing property owned by Palestinians, and there were at least 308 incidents recorded over October and November. This resulted in over 1,000 people being displaced.
The death toll in Gaza from Israel’s bombardment is currently more than 22,000, and the United Nation’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, today described conditions there as “uninhabitable”, with famine looming after three months of repeated strikes. – January 6, 2024