New Israeli Settlement Outpost Near Nablus

Settlers targeting Palestinian olive farmers in Huwara in the West Bank on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. AFP
Settlers targeting Palestinian olive farmers in Huwara in the West Bank on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. AFP
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New Israeli Settlement Outpost Near Nablus

Settlers targeting Palestinian olive farmers in Huwara in the West Bank on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. AFP
Settlers targeting Palestinian olive farmers in Huwara in the West Bank on Wednesday, October 7, 2020. AFP

Dozens of settlers set on Wednesday a new settlement outpost on Palestinian territories in Beit Dajan village near Nablus city.

The settlers arrived late at night and began setting up the new outpost on private Palestinian lands belonging to the residents of the village, five kilometers away from their homes, eyewitnesses said.

They installed an animal barn and extended water pipelines to supply the new outpost with water from the Alon Moriah Israeli settlement near the village.

They also built a several-kilometer road, causing damages and confiscating hundreds of dunums of Palestinian lands.

Meanwhile, the Land Research Center of the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem reported that the Israeli army issued 63 military orders to close areas and lands planted with olive trees in separate parts of the West Bank, coinciding with the beginning of the harvest season in the Palestinian territories.

The orders target about 3,000 dunums of lands planted with olive trees in separate areas of the governorates of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus.

The army considered them as part of or belonging to the settlements.

According to the orders, nobody is allowed to enter these areas, and whoever is present therein shall immediately leave. They also claimed that they exclude holders of permits issued by the occupation authorities.

This means that many Palestinian families and farmers will not have access to their lands and would not be unable to harvest their trees or make olive oil.

Palestinians considered the military orders an official support from the occupation authorities for settlers who usually wait for the olive harvest season to prevent farmers from accessing their lands.

In Wednesday, Israelis of Leshem settlement burned nearly 50 olive trees in Deir Samaan area, east of Deir Ballut.



Officials: US Will Remove Gaza Aid Pier and May Not Put it Back

A US soldier inspects Gaza aid on a truck before entering a US ship at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A US soldier inspects Gaza aid on a truck before entering a US ship at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
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Officials: US Will Remove Gaza Aid Pier and May Not Put it Back

A US soldier inspects Gaza aid on a truck before entering a US ship at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)
A US soldier inspects Gaza aid on a truck before entering a US ship at the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The pier built by the US military to bring aid to Gaza has been removed due to weather to protect it, and the US is considering not re-installing it unless the aid begins flowing out into the population again, several US officials said Friday.

While the military has helped deliver desperately needed food through the pier, the vast majority of it is still sitting in the adjacent storage yard because of the difficulty that agencies have had moving it to areas in Gaza where it is most needed, and that storage area is almost full.

The pier has been used to get more than 19.4 million pounds, or 8.6 million kilograms, of food into Gaza but has faced multiple setbacks. Rough seas damaged the pier just days into its initial operations, forcing the military to remove it temporarily for repairs and then reinstall it.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military movements, said the military could reinstall the pier once the bad weather passes in the coming days, but the final decision on whether to reinstall it hasn’t been made.

Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, acknowledged that she doesn't know when the pier will be reinstalled.

She also said Friday that there is a need for more aid to come into Cyprus and be transported to the pier. She noted that the secure area onshore is “pretty close to full,” but that the intention is still to get aid into Gaza by all means necessary. She said the US is having discussions with the aid agencies about the distribution of the food.

The big challenge has been that humanitarian convoys have stopped carrying the aid from the pier’s storage area further into Gaza, to get it into civilian hands, because they have come under attack.

The UN, which has the widest reach in delivering aid to starving Palestinians, on June 9 paused the distribution of food and other emergency supplies that had arrived through the pier. The pause came after the Israeli military used an area near the pier to fly out rescued hostages after a raid that killed more than 270 Palestinians, prompting a UN security review over concerns that aid workers’ safety and neutrality may have compromised.