BETHLEHEM, April 6, 2025 (WAFA) — Israeli occupation authorities Sunday seized 57.79 dunams of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem Governorate, specifically in the areas of Al-Khader, Artas, Bethlehem, and Beit Ummar in the Hebron Governorate.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission stated that the occupation authorities, through a so-called "military order for military purposes, numbered (T/3/25)," seized 57.79 dunams with the aim of creating a buffer zone around the Efrat colony, which is built on Palestinian land in the governorate.

The commission noted that Israel, through a series of military orders, established a total of 14 buffer zones around a number of colonies.

Through this measure, it aims to prevent citizens from accessing vast areas under the pretext of the military order, paving the way for permanent control over them in the future.

It noted that the so-called Israeli Land Authority issued two large construction tenders last February, aiming to build 974 new colonial units, with the aim of establishing a new colonial neighborhood affiliated with the Efrat colony, a matter the commission had previously addressed.

Maps from today's military order indicate that the buffer zone the occupying state seeks to establish around the colony also surrounds the planned neighborhood, in addition to two colonial outposts that have been transformed into neighborhoods to the north of the colony: Givat Hadagan and Givat Hatamar.

K.T