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7 illegal settlements said built in West Bank area under Palestinian civil control.
Seven illegal Israeli settlement outposts have been established in recent months inside Area B of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority is supposed to have civilian control, the Peace Now organization reported Sunday.
According to the anti-settlements monitoring group, five of the seven outposts are located in a large tract of land known as the “Agreed-Upon-Reserve” east and southeast of Bethlehem. While the land is located inside Area B, the Palestinian Authority is prohibited from construction there.
“Settlers have paved roads, built observation posts, and increased their presence in the Agreed-Upon-Reserve,” Peace Now alleged. It added that there had already been “visible consequences” as a result of the outposts, as in some instances, Palestinians who had been living on the land fled in fear of the settlers, and their homes were promptly taken over by the settlers.
Of the two other outposts, one is located east of the Ofra settlement in the central West Bank on what Peace Now said is land belonging to the Palestinian village of Ein Yabrud. The other is located further north on land belonging to the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya, close to the Shiloh settlement and south of the illegal outpost of Adei Ad.
While all seven of the outposts are considered illegal under Israeli law, only the one established on the land belonging to Turmus Ayya, dubbed Or Nachman, was evacuated by the Civil Administration Department of the Defense Ministry. It was promptly rebuilt and has not been evacuated again since. The settlers also launched a crowdfunding campaign recently to build a road connecting it to nearby settlements, the report found. As of Sunday, the campaign had raised more than NIS 33,000 ($9,000).
Across the outposts, at least one is only inhabited by a single person; another is home to one family, and a third is occupied only by a group of young settler activists.
*Peace Now Exposes: For the First Time since Oslo Accords, 7 Outposts Established in West Bank Area B*
1. Five of the outposts were established in the area called the “Agreed-Upon Reserve,” while the other two were established in the Ramallah area.
…/2 pic.twitter.com/Z1s4FRPuHP— Hagit Ofran חגית עופרן (@hagitofran) December 22, 2024
“After seizing control of Area C and systematically displacing Palestinians through house demolitions and settler violence, settlers have now set their sights on Area B,” Peace Now said upon publishing its new report.
“The Israeli government’s annexation plans are not limited to Area C. By enabling settlers to establish outposts deep in Area B, the government blatantly violates another critical element of the Oslo Accords,” the organization continued. “If we do not act today, we will find ourselves returning to full military rule across the entire West Bank.”
The left-wing group noted that the encroachment of Israeli settlements into Area B is not a new phenomenon, and pointed to three examples in which construction had bled over the lines into the Palestinian Authority-controlled area in the past. The key difference, it said, was that in those instances, the structures were not located hundreds of meters from the boundaries of Area C and were eventually demolished by the Civil Authority.
Under the Oslo Accords, 18% of the West Bank was defined as Area A, under Palestinian civil and security authority; approximately 22% was defined as Area B, under Palestinian civil authority, and the remaining approximately 60% of the West Bank territories were defined as Area C, under full Israeli security and civilian authority.
In total over the past year, 52 outposts were established across the West Bank, Peace Now said, adding that the settlements in Area B constituted approximately 13.5% of the total.
The number of outposts established in 2024 is an increase of 100% from the previous year, as Peace Now’s 2023 Settlement Watch Report recorded the establishment of 26 new outposts.
(Times of Israel)