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Photo:
Scene. Published by Maan News
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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Several bulldozers, belonging to Israeli settlers, razed and leveled Palestinian lands near Assira al-Qibliya village, south of the northern occupied West Bank district of Nablus, on Wednesday.

Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that a number of bulldozers, belonging to Israeli settlers from the illegal Yitzhar settlement, began to raze dozens of dunams of Palestinian lands near Assira al-Qibliya village.

Daghlas added that Israeli settlers have razed these lands for more than three weeks, as part of an Israeli plan to expand the Yitzhar settlement.

According to the Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ), since the state of Israel confiscated land from Urif and other Palestinian villages to establish the illegal Yithzar settlement in the 1980s, "attacks and violence perpetrated by settlers has had a profoundly negative impact on Palestinian residents and their property," stressing that Yitzhar "poses a daily threat to residents of the neighboring Palestinian villages."

Since the occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967, between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis have moved into Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory, in violation of international law.

The estimated 196 government recognized Israeli settlements scattered across the Palestinian territory are all considered illegal under international law.