Israeli forces raze Palestinian village land in occupied Jenin

The Israeli army razed Palestinian land in the north of the occupied West Bank in order to expand an illegal Israeli settlement, the village's head of council Ahmad Khatib said on Tuesday.

Khatib told Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA that Israeli bulldozers started to vandalise 120,000 square metres of the village land in Dhar al-Maleh, southwest of Jenin. The forces destroyed a paved road and began working on expanding the illegal settlement of Shaked, built on expropriated Palestinian village land.

He added the land from Dhar al-Maleh was isolated from the rest of the village by an Israeli barrier, which made it difficult for land owners and village residents to reach it.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 600,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

All Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank are classed as illegal under international law, particularly article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which asserts that "the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies".

Israeli forces and settlers routinely and sometimes fatally attack Palestinians in the occupied territories, demolishing their homes, poisoning their livestock and vandalising their properties.

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