The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) demolished on Monday a house and bulldozed land in the Khallet an-Nahla area of the lands of Artas village, south of Bethlehem, in the south of the West Bank.

Hassan Brijieh, the director of the Office of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority, stated in a press statement that the IOF demolished a Palestinian house measuring 80 square meters and bulldozed land for the citizen Muhammad Roomi, who has documents of land ownership.

He added that the IOF had previously informed Rumi three times of his home demolition.

Brijieh pointed out that Khillet an-Nahla area has been targeted for years in a bid to empty it and seize it to expand the borders of Efrat settlement and link it to Tekoa settlement east of Bethlehem.

Khillet an-Nahla is located between the settlement of Efrat, which was established on lands south of Bethlehem, and the Givat Heitim outpost in the neighboring Khillet al-Qatun.

In 1979, IOF paved a settlement road in the lands of the Palestinians to connect the settlement with the neighboring outpost. The IOF was able to confiscate dozens of agricultural and pastoral dunums by military decisions of the so-called Civil Administration.

Tuqu’ town is surrounded by five settlements, three of which are at the northeastern end of the town, and two are on the southern end of the town.

Khillet an-Nahla and Tuqu’ fall within the E2 plan which is an “old new” settlement project to isolate Bethlehem city from its southern countryside, as well as from the south of the West Bank. This is achieved by linking the settlement of Efrat, southwest of Bethlehem, with Tekoa settlement, southeast of Bethlehem, through the settlement of Givat Itam.

In 2004, the area was declared as state land, which means that no one is allowed to use it. Nevertheless, this decision stated in 2016 that Jewish settlers have the right to use it while preventing that for Palestinians.

The settlement plan consumes 1,182 dunums, and the occupation announced the construction of 2,500 settlement units on the site to completely isolate Bethlehem.

 

Source: The Palestinian Information Center