Israeli army orders Palestinian land seizures in West Bank

• Palestinian officials fear land will be used for new military infrastructure

RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Israeli military issued notices Wednesday for the seizure of Palestinian land in the northern West Bank and the Jordan Valley.

Mutaz Bisharat, a settlement official in the Tubas Governorate, told Anadolu that “the occupation army distributed notices to confiscate over 740 dunams (183 acres) of land belonging to Palestinians in the Tubas area and the northern Jordan Valley.”

Bisharat explained that the army justified the seizure for “military purposes” but did not provide details on the intended use of the land. He speculated that it could be for “either the construction of a military road or a separation wall.”

He noted Israeli excavation work near a main road close to the town of Atuf in southeastern Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley, which is believed to be related to the construction of a concrete wall.

The notices allow residents to file objections within seven days.

Bisharat, however, pointed out that the process is challenging because it is difficult to obtain land registration certificates from Israeli authorities, who rarely grant them to the rightful Palestinian owners.

The Israeli army seized approximately 27,000 dunams of land in the West Bank in the first half of 2024 through military orders, according to Palestinian figures.

The seizures have been carried out under various pretexts, including declaring areas as nature reserves, issuing land expropriation orders and invoking military control.

Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid Israel’s devastating military offensive on Gaza, which has killed nearly 41,300 victims, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 704 people, including 159 children, have been killed and more than 5,700 injured by Israeli fire in the West Bank, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation followed a landmark opinion by the International Court of Justice on July 19 which declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio