Israel declares that it has taken 800 hectares in the West Bank

On Friday, Israel said that it had taken control of 1,977 acres, or 800 hectares, of territory in the occupied West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, the extreme-right Finance Minister of Israel, established “state lands” close to the Israeli settlement of Yafit in the northern Jordan Valley. International law prohibits Israeli colonies in the Palestinian areas.
Using a divisive term for the occupied West Bank, Smotrich stated on Friday, “We are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country, while there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general.”
Leading the far-right Religious Zionism party, Smotrich himself resides in a colony.
The declaration was made in the midst of a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s ground assault in Gaza.
Israeli watchdogs and the Palestinian authority criticise unlawful settlements.
The Israeli state no longer views Palestinian private property as existing in areas that have been proclaimed state territory. Israeli settlers may then purchase or lease the property. Many states see all Israeli settlements in the occupied areas as illegal under international law, including Germany’s.
The action was denounced as “a continuation of the extermination and displacement of our people from their homeland” by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday. It continued, “The international community’s unwillingness to defend our people is cover-up and collaboration in Israel’s continued avoidance of accountability.
The greatest tract of land that Israel has acquired since the 1993 Oslo Accords was equaled by Friday’s statement, according to Israeli settlement monitor Peace Now, and “2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land.”
“It is clear that Netanyahu and Smotrich are determined to fight against the entire world and against the interests of the people of Israel for the benefit of a handful of settlers who receive thousands of dunams as if there were no political conflict to solve or a war to end,” the group stated. A dunam is 0.1 hectares, or 0.247 acres, of land.
According to UN rights head Volker Turk, there has been a sharp increase in the building of illegal Israeli settlements, which puts the possibility of a Palestinian state in jeopardy.
Turk referred to the establishment of these colonies as a “war crime,” a charge that Israel disputes.