News - Middle East: An extremist Israeli settlers’ organization says it has been taking preparatory measures for the construction of dozens more settlements in the occupied West Bank ahead of the upcoming visit of US President Joe Biden to the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Israel Hayom newspaper revealed Sunday that the Nahala movement was considering expediting the plan in three locations to construct 28 settlements on Palestinian-owned lands, Palestinian Information Center reported. 

The Nahala movement said it has already begun preparing extremist settler groups and touring potential sites ahead of the planned settlement expansion operation.

"It is time to say out that the entire land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel. We will continue to establish settlements and cities in all areas," Nahala movement head Daniella Weiss was quoted as saying.

Emboldened by an all-out unconditional support by the United States, Israel has stepped up its settlement construction activities in recent years.

Biden has sharply been criticized by analysts for following the policies of his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, in the Middle East as he is due to pay visits to the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia next week.

The Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, recently censured Biden’s forthcoming trip to the region, saying that the visits are meant to suffocate the Palestinian cause.

Senior Hamas leaders have called for greater unity among all ranks of the resistance front in order to prevent any potential infiltration attempt by the Israeli regime in the region.

The development comes as the Israeli regime is pushing plans for further illegal land theft of Palestinian territories, which have been met with far-and-wide regional and international objection.

Between 600,000 and 750,000 Israelis occupy over 250 illegal settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state, with East al-Quds as its capital. 

The presence and continued expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, however, have created a major obstacle to the establishment of such a state.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014, with Israel’s continued settlement expansion emerging as a key sticking point.

All Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international law as they are built on the occupied land. 

The UN and most countries regard the Israeli settlements as illegal because the territories they are built on were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

The UN Security Council has time and again condemned the occupying regime’s diabolic settler-colonialism project in its umpteen resolutions.

Source: Press TV