LONDON: The Palestinian Authority’s settlement activity watchdog reported that Israeli authorities on Monday seized 77.4 hectares of land in northeastern Ramallah, the administrative capital in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said that the land in the villages of Al-Mughayir and Jabait was declared “state land” to justify its seizure on Monday.
The commission added that Israeli authorities have incorporated the newly captured area into the Malakhi HaShalom outpost, an illegal Israeli settlement established in 2015 on land belonging to the village of Al-Mughayir. The Israeli far-right government in 2023 announced a plan to legalize Malakhi HaShalom and expand its territory.
The commission reported that the total Israeli land grab, designated as “state land” since early 2023, is estimated at 6,381 hectares, or 25,824 dunams, a measurement used by Palestinians since the Ottoman era.
More than 700,000 settlers live in the West Bank, where the Israeli government has maintained a military occupation since June 1967. The expansion of settlements has long been viewed as an obstacle to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
