Israeli Rights Groups Warn of Increasing Land Seizures in West Bank

Gaza: Three Israeli human rights organizations announced on Wednesday that the expansion of settlements and land seizures in the West Bank is increasingly isolating Palestinian towns from their lands. According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, a joint report by Yesh Din, Bimkom - Planners for Planning Rights, and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, has documented the expansion of land seizure policies, settler violence, and movement restrictions. These measures, once concentrated on smaller Palestinian communities in Area C, which comprises around 60% of the West Bank, are now extending deeper into larger towns and wider areas across the territory. The report highlights that separate actions such as settlement expansion, the establishment of pastoral outposts, settler violence, and movement restrictions are interconnected processes pushing Palestinians further from their lands, confining them to shrinking areas. It examined cases like the al-Rummana community in Jericho, wher e residents reported various forms of harassment and restrictions, and the town of Sinjil, where settlement outposts, fences, and closures have isolated residents from their agricultural lands. The organizations emphasized that the ongoing seizure of Palestinian land, the isolation of towns, and the fragmentation of Palestinian territorial continuity are part of a de facto annexation process. They noted that strategies previously applied to small communities in Area C are now being implemented across entire towns and regions within the West Bank. The Israeli government, they claimed, aims to annex as much land as possible while minimizing the Palestinian population in those areas. Since the formation of the current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu in late 2022, 104 new settlements have been approved, alongside the actual establishment of 160 agricultural settlement outposts in the West Bank, as per Palestinian data.