The Palestine Liberation Organization accused Israel of drafting and securing new settlement plans ahead of its plans to annex portions of the West Bank.
A report, published by a PLO bureau, suggested that Israeli settlers are working to create new settlements under the protection of the Israeli army.
The report stated that groups of settlers began establishing and installing settlement outposts in different areas in the West Bank.
“What Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on July 1, about it being the date set to expand annexation plans for portions of the West Bank, has been launched by settler ranks and Jewish terror organizations,” the report said.
The report documented groups of Israeli settlers setting up tents on lands owned by Palestinians in different areas in the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley. This comes in preparation for seizing and confiscating Palestinian-owned lands located on the outskirts of settlement blocs and Israeli army camps.
These tents were erected in the eastern parts of Tubas city, west of Bethlehem, areas overlooking Nablus and in Hebron.
The report emphasized that Israeli occupation soldiers who are deployed to military checkpoints, whether fixed or mobile, inform Palestinian citizens passing by and living in the aforementioned areas that those lands belong to Israel.
Since announcing its intention to annex parts of the West Bank, Israel has implemented a series of measures on the ground that include seizing lands, closing areas, building roads, and pushing settlement plans in a way the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said represents the largest incitement for right-wingers in Israel and settlers to engage in the most terrible crimes and violations against Palestinians.
The Palestinian report denounced Israel’s settlement projects, saying that there is a new project for 240 settlement units at the heart of Jerusalem.
The new project includes five skyscrapers that include housing units, commercial stores and small scale hotels.
