LONDON: Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank took over an EU-funded public park used by Palestinian residents of Kafr Ni’ma village, west of Ramallah, and installed an iron gate at its entrance on Sunday.
Raafat Khalifa, the head of the village council, said the 2500-sq.-meter area was developed in 2025 with EU funding. It is situated in Area B, where the Palestinian Authority governs civilian matters, while Israel maintains control over security according to peace accords of the 1990s.
Khalifa said the park serves as a recreational space for the village of 4,700 residents. Settlers raised the Israeli flag on an iron gate they installed to prevent residents from accessing it. They had previously seized a water spring in the area, according to the Palestine News Agency.
Separately, Israeli authorities issued a military order on Sunday to seize 37,481 sq. meters to expand a military site adjacent to the Israeli settlement of Beit Horon, near the city of Beitunia in the Ramallah governorate.
Excluding East Jerusalem, around 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, alongside some 3 million Palestinians, since Israel occupied the region in 1967. They live in settlements considered illegal by most of the international community.
