Occupying 800 hectares of Palestinian land in the West Bank

Israel has announced that it will seize hundreds of hectares of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank for the purpose of developing settlements. This is considered as one of the biggest land grabbing schemes of this regime.

According to Al-Mayadeen, Bezalel Smotrich, the Minister of Finance of the Zionist regime, yesterday Friday after the visit of the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to the occupied territories to talk with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that 800 hectares (about 2000 acres) of more land will take over in the occupied West Bank.

He emphasized the determination of this regime to continue building settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite increasing international protests.

The occupying regime has already introduced 300 hectares (740 acres) of land in the Jordan Valley as state lands.

Meanwhile, even the United States, Israel's ally, said last month that Israel's settlement expansion in the West Bank is against international law.

Earlier this month, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said, “The establishment and continued development of settlements is a war crime under international law.”

More than 600,000 Israelis live in more than 230 settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.

While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, Israel has increased settlement construction in flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinian Authority condemned the occupation of land and the expansion of illegal settlements. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine called the recent action a “crime” which is part of “the official policy of the race against time to annex the West Bank and eliminate the possibility of forming a Palestinian state.”