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OIC Condemns Israeli Efforts to Build New Settlements in Jordan Valley

Residents of Khirbet Humsa in the Jordan Valley watch the demolition of their home by Israeli forces in February 2021. (AP)
Residents of Khirbet Humsa in the Jordan Valley watch the demolition of their home by Israeli forces in February 2021. (AP)
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OIC Condemns Israeli Efforts to Build New Settlements in Jordan Valley

Residents of Khirbet Humsa in the Jordan Valley watch the demolition of their home by Israeli forces in February 2021. (AP)
Residents of Khirbet Humsa in the Jordan Valley watch the demolition of their home by Israeli forces in February 2021. (AP)

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday condemned the Israeli occupation authorities’ approval of new plans to build 730 new housing units in the town of Beit Hanina, north of occupied Jerusalem.

“This decision is a continuation of Israel’s blatant violations of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, particularly Resolution 2334, adopted by the Security Council on 23 December 2016,” OIC said in a statement.

The Organization called on the international community, mainly the UN Security Council, to assume its responsibilities and compel Israel, the occupying power, to stop its colonial settlement policy and the attacks carried out by extremist settlers throughout the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem.

The Israeli District Planning and Building Committee has approved a plan to build 730 new housing units in the Pisgat Zeev settlement, which is built illegally on land belonging to Palestinian residents in Beit Hanina
Israeli news outlets said the plan in the settlement of Basgat Ze’ev is located on a total area of about 70 dunums, and includes about 730 settlement units to be built in 14 residential buildings up to 12 floors high.

They added that in addition to the construction of settlement units, the plan also includes 21,000 square meters for trade and employment, and about 16 dunums will be allocated to open spaces.

Recently, Israeli authorities have increased their plans to build settlement units in the occupied territories.

The Palestinians reject these moves, which they say aim at undermining any chances for a resolution of the conflict based on the principles of the two-state solution.

Israeli settlers on Sunday began building new housing units in the northern Jordan Valley, WAFA news agency said.

It quoted human rights activist Aref Daraghmeh as saying that settlers have started building settlement units in the illegal Israeli settlement of Shadmot Mehola, which means devouring more Palestinian-owned lands.

Shadmot Mehola is one of the settlements located in the northern Jordan Valley. It was established in 1979 as an agricultural settlement. The number of settlers in 2016 reached about 608, and in 2018, its total area reached 363 dunums of Palestinian citizens' lands in the Jordan Valley.

Also, Israeli settlers built a shelter in the lands of Khirbet Al-Farisiyah in the northern Jordan Valley, WAFA said.

Daraghmeh said the settlers set up a shelter in the lands between the settlements of Rotem and Shadmot Mehola, which are built on lands belonging to citizens in Al-Farsieh in the northern Jordan Valley.

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Senior US Republican Demands Biden Administration Shut Gaza Aid Pier

A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)
A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)
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Senior US Republican Demands Biden Administration Shut Gaza Aid Pier

A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)
A US Army soldier gestures as trucks loaded with humanitarian aid arrive at the US-built floating pier Trident before reaching the beach on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (AP)

The Republican lawmaker who leads the House Armed Services Committee has written to the Biden administration formally demanding it shut down its aid pier off the coast Gaza, calling the operation ineffective, risky and a waste of money.

The offshore floating pier, announced by Biden in March as a response to the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip, was constructed off the coast of the enclave by the US military as a way to bring in food and other aid supplies.

The US military has been authorized to operate it until the end of July, but a US Agency for International Development official said this week that the administration could seek to extend it for at least another month.

"I urge the Administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers wrote in a letter seen by Reuters.

The letter, sent to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, has not been previously reported.

Rogers has long opposed the pier and has called in the past for it to be dismantled, but he had not previously expressed that view in a formal written letter to the administration.

His armed services committee is the Pentagon's top oversight body in the House of Representatives, and formal requests from its chairman traditionally require a response from Pentagon officials.

Aid first began arriving via the US-built pier on May 17 into Gaza, where nearly all the 2.3 million residents have been displaced by Israel's campaign against the Hamas movement.

But rough seas have damaged the pier, forcing repairs, and poor weather has limited the number of days the pier has been operational. Most of the supplies that have reached the shore have yet to be distributed by UN aid agencies which say their operations have been limited by insecurity.

"As of June 19, JLOTS had only been operational about 10 days and had only moved 3,415 metric tons onto the beach in Gaza," Rogers wrote, using the US military's acronym for the pier system, known as Joint Logistics Over the Shore.

According to US military data, as of Tuesday, 8,332 pallets had been delivered via the pier. But around 84% of them have been sitting on Gaza's coast in a marshalling area waiting to be picked up by the United Nations for distribution.

The World Food Program paused deliveries earlier this month over security concerns.

Reuters was given rare access to the US military-run pier off Gaza on Tuesday and saw aid pallets being moved from a vessel onto the 1,200-foot (370 m)-long pier as it bobbed around with the incoming waves. The pallets were then taken by trucks to the coast.

The operation is complex, involving about 1,000 US military personnel. The Pentagon estimates the first 90 days of operation will cost about $230 million.

Rogers also noted that three US servicemembers suffered non-combat injuries while deployed on the operation.

"I urge the Administration to immediately cease this failed operation before further catastrophe occurs and consider alternative means of land and air-based humanitarian aid delivery," Rogers wrote.