BETHELEM, February, 17, 2025 (WAFA) – The Israeli Peace Now movement said that the Israeli occupation authorities have begun procedures to build 974 colonial units in the illegal outpost of Efrat, which is built on citizens’ lands south of the city of Bethlehem.

The movement added, in a statement, that “the tender is intended to establish a new neighborhood that will expand the Efrat colony by 644 dunams, and increase the number of colonists by about 40%.”

It continued, “The Efrat colony hinders the development of the city of Bethlehem, which is located to the south, and if Israel seeks to annex it, it will cut off the entire southern West Bank.”

Peace Now indicated that “Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is working to impose facts on the ground that will destroy the opportunity for peace and settlement.”

The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Mu’ayyad Shaaban, had said that the Israeli occupation state had begun building a new colony on the lands of the Bethlehem Governorate, in the area between the towns of Husan and Al-Khader, specifically on the lands of the village of Battir, which is the settlement that was named “Nahal Helitz.”

He added in a statement issued by the Authority last Tuesday that the establishment of this colony was approved in response to the wave of recognition of the State of Palestine by countries around the world in June of last year, and that the occupying state, after the decision to establish this colony, took a series of steps, the first of which was to allocate a total of 120 dunums for the new colony, then followed it with the decision of the Blue Line team, which subjected another 600 dunums for its establishment, to begin the actual construction process in it these days.

Shaaban warned that the establishment of this colony aims to further separate the governorates of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, in an effort to gradually implement the Greater Jerusalem plan that threatens the entire geographical continuity between the northern and southern West Bank.

Y.S