SALFIT, Friday, December 11, 2020 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today denied Palestinians access to their lands threatened with confiscation, west of Salfit city, according to WAFA correspondent.

She said that Israeli troops tightened restrictions on the access of Palestinians to their lands in the area of al-Ras, at the risk of expropriation to make room for the expansion of the Israeli colonial settlement of Ariel.

Secretary-General of Fatah branch in Salfit Abdul-Sattar Awwad said that the Israeli government is tacitly supporting settlers in their drive to fully take over al-Ras area for the construction of a new colonial outpost, which would form a part of the larger Ariel settlement.

There are over 500,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which comes in violation of international law.

There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in 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 colonial 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 colonial settlements is a “national interest.”

K.F.