News - Middle East: Israeli regime authorities intend to confiscate thousands of square meters of private Palestinian land in the central part of the occupied West Bank to further expand illegal settlements in violation of international law. 

Salfit Governor Abdullah Kamil declared in a statement that regime officials had issued an order aimed at seizing more than 10 square kilometers of Palestinian-owned land, the Palestinian Information Center reported on Sunday. 

He noted that the so-called Israeli Supreme Planning and Building Council has announced that the targeted lands are situated in the towns of Az-Zawiya, Deir Ballut, Rafat, Mas-ha village as well as the village of Sinria, south of Qalqilya.

The senior Palestinian official further emphasized that the Palestinian-owned lands are intended to be used for construction of industrial and tourist areas, settlement units, and roads linking the Zionist settlements in the occupied territories.

Kamil also called on local Palestinian residents and farmers to communicate with local authorities represented by municipal and village councils, the General Authority for Civil Affairs and the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority to submit their objections.

He then called on the international community to take strong measures against the Israeli regime in efforts to halt its illegal settlement expansion policies.

Emboldened by the persisting US support, the Tel Aviv regime has brazenly increased its unlawful settlement construction efforts, in direct defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which unequivocally condemned the establishment of settlements in the West Bank and East al-Quds as a gross violation of international law.

The vast majority of the international community considers such Zionist settlements in occupied territories as illegal.

More than 600,000 occupying settlers live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

The UN Security Council has issued multiple resolutions condemning the Israeli regime's settlement activities in these occupied territories.

Palestinians insist on having the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East al-Quds as its capital.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Tel Aviv regime's continued illegal settlement expansion.

Source: Press TV