Monitor: ’Israel’ to Confiscate 500 Dunams of Land in Southern Nablus

Local Editor

The "Israeli" apartheid regime is planning to confiscate 500 dunams of land [123 acres] currently held by the Palestinian Authority near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, a local monitor said Tuesday.

Ghassan Daghlas, a local PA official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said that the land would be confiscated from the Palestinian villages of Jurish and Qusra.

A spokesperson for the so-called "Israel's" Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories [COGAT] denied the reports, telling Ma'an that no land in that area had been confiscated by the "Israeli" regime.

However, Daghlas said that "Israeli" forces had delivered an order to locals classifying the land was "Israeli". He called on locals with private land in the area to present an objection to COGAT.

Large sections of the land included in the order are covered in olive trees and hold water wells used by Palestinians for irrigation, Daghlas added.

Daghlas said that he believed the land in question was likely to be incorporated into the nearby illegal settlement of Migdalim.

Land belonging to Palestinian residents in Jurish and Qusra is under continual threat from nearby settlements, and residents report regular harassment and attacks carried out on their property by "Israeli" settlers.

The Migdalim settlement was established on land confiscated from residents of Qusra in 1984 and residents have watched the settlement expand further onto their land since.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team