QALQILIYA, Wednesday, July 8, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli troops Wednesday evening seized two bulldozers in the West Bank districts of Qalqiliya and Ramallah, confirmed witnesses.

Israeli forces escorted a lorry crane into Tannura area, north of Sanniriya town, south of Qalqiliya city, where they seized one of two Palestinian-owned bulldozers that were used for land reclamation.

The raid triggered confrontations as the local farmers attempted to stop the confiscation. No injuries were reported though.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers seized another Palestinian-owned bulldozer in Dair Qaddis village, west of Ramallah.

The bulldozer was also used for land reclamation in the area.

Soldiers in the oxymoronically named Civil Administration determine where Palestinians may live, where and when they may travel (including to other parts of the occupied territories like Gaza and East Jerusalem), whether they can build or expand homes on their own land, whether they own that land at all, whether an Israeli settler can takeover that land among others.

There are almost 834,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The number of settlers has almost tripled since the Oslo Accords of 1993, when settlers’ number estimated 252,000. Illegal settlements have leapt from 144 to 515 in that time.

Israel’s nation-state law that passed last July stated that building and strengthening the settlements is a “national interest.”

K.F.