Description

SALFIT (Ma'an) -- Israeli bulldozers on Monday razed Palestinian lands west of Salfit and uprooted 25 olive trees in order to to pave the way for the expansion of an Israeli settlement, an independent researcher said.

Israeli authorities razed the lands in the northwestern West Bank in order to expand a road for settlers from the adjacent settlement of Bruchin, said researcher Khaled Maali.

Bruchin settlement is located between the lands of two Palestinian villages, Bruqin and Sarta, in the area west of Salfit.

Palestinians in the region had previously protested and organized sit-ins in order to prevent Israeli bulldozers from continuing their work, and had succeeded in forcing bulldozers to suspend their work.

Settlers, however, filed a complaint in an Israeli court asking them to resume the work. The court subsequently declared the area a closed "military zone" until the complaint could be considered.

Settlers are building new apartments and housing units but are doing so covertly, added Maali.

They are also constructing a street to link the settlement with the "Trans-Samaria" road, a major road whose construction has involved the confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinian lands already.

More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in contravention of international law.

The internationally recognized Palestinian territories of which the West Bank and East Jerusalem form a part have been occupied by the Israeli military since 1967.