Israeli authorities have sanctioned the appropriation of 12.7 square kilometers of land in the occupied West Bank, marking the largest single seizure in nearly thirty years, according to an Israeli settlement monitoring group.
Peace Now, an Israeli watchdog, reported on Wednesday that the Israeli body overseeing construction in the West Bank, the Custodian of State’s Property in the Civil Administration, declared the takeover of this substantial area in the Jordan Valley, as per Xinhua news agency.
This allocation is the largest since the Oslo Accords of 1993, Peace Now stated. In 2024 alone, Israel has designated approximately 23.7 square kilometers of West Bank lands as "State Lands," Peace Now reported.
Declaring land as "State Land" in the West Bank is a bureaucratic maneuver by Israel to strip Palestinians of ownership rights, allowing exclusive leasing to Israelis for settlement construction and land use restructuring.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has since expanded settlements there. The international community widely views these settlements in the West Bank, where Palestinians seek to establish their future state, as a barrier to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The move is expected to escalate tensions in a region already experiencing heightened violence following Israel's retaliatory actions in the Gaza Strip after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7 last year.
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