Israeli bulldozers raze Palestinian lands south of al-Aqsa Mosque

The Israeli authorities have confiscated a vast tract of private Palestinian land as the Tel Aviv regime presses ahead with expansionist land-grab policies in violation of international law and UN Security Council resolutions. 

The Palestinian Information Center, citing local sources reported on Sunday that Israeli forces carried out large-scale bulldozing activities in the Palestinian neighborhood of Wadi Rababa in Silwan district, south of the al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied holy city of Jerusalem al-Quds. 

They also chopped down hundreds of olive trees belonging to Palestinians.

Video footage recorded by local residents showed bulldozers under the Israeli protection leveling swathes of lands and uprooting the trees in the area.

Israeli authorities usually demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, claiming that the structures have been built without permits. They also sometimes order the Palestinian owners to demolish their own homes or pay the demolition costs to the municipality if they do not.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that he would start plans for annexing more areas in the occupied West Bank, in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s "deal of the century" scheme, further infuriating Palestinians.

Trump officially unveiled his scheme in January last year at the White House with Netanyahu on his side, while Palestinian representatives were not invited.

The proposal gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders, enshrining the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds as “Israel’s undivided capital” and allowing the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

Trump's highly provocative scheme, which further denies the right of return to Palestinian refugees, is also in complete disregard of UN Security Council resolutions and rejected by the vast majority of the international community.

Israel’s unlawful annexation push has drawn widespread criticism from the entire international community, including the regime’s closest allies.

Palestinian officials and resistance groups have also attributed increasing settlement activities in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds to normalization agreements between some Arab countries and Israel, emphasizing that such accords have emboldened the regime to annex more Palestinian lands.

The Palestinians have also censured the Israeli regime over attempts to change the geographic and demographic character of occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, saying such bids are doomed to failure.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions. Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

Israeli forces abduct several Palestinians in overnight raids

Separately, Palestinian media reported on Sunday that Israeli soldiers detained several Palestinians, including two lawyers, during overnight and predawn raids across the occupied lands.

The abductees were arrested from Jerusalem al-Quds, West Bank cities of Ramallah and al-Khalil (Hebron) Nablus and Jenin, the report further said, adding that a number of Palestinian homes and stores were also raided and damaged during the arrests. 

The Israeli troops also snatched surveillance cameras and looted precious items across the region.

According to the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer, there are 5,580 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons.

In recent months, Israeli forces have frequently raided the houses of Palestinians in the West Bank, arresting dozens of people, who are then transferred to Israeli prisons, where they are kept without any charges.

Israeli settlers attacks against Palestinians rise 'noticeably,' rights group says

B’Tselem says the attacks in the occupied West Bank noticeably rose in April.

The Israeli settlers also launched a series of attacks in different parts of the occupied West Bank.    

According to B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group, Israel has clearly allowed its settlers to assault Palestinians for years and inflict damage on their property as one of its policies.

This has included provision of military protection for the attackers, and in some cases the soldiers’ active participation in the assault.

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