BETHLEHEM, May 4, 2015 (WAFA) – Israeli forces set up early Monday several mobile homes on seized large tracts of land at the northern entrance of Kisan to the east of Bethlehem, said a municipal source.

Head of Kisan Village Council Hussein Ghazzal told WAFA that forces set up early morning 12 mobile homes on large previously bulldozed tracts of land belonging to the Palestinian villagers of Kisan and Hebron town of Sa‘ir.

Ghazzal added the land occupied about 650 dunums; which had been leveled by Israel for the purpose of settlement construction and setting up stone-cutting factories. 

“The establishment of settlements on the West Bank violates international humanitarian law, which establishes the principles applying during war and occupation. Moreover, the settlements lead to the infringement of international human rights law,” stated B'Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories.

The center added that, “International humanitarian law prohibits the occupying power to transfer citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory (Fourth Geneva Convention, article 49).”

“The Hague Regulations prohibit the occupying power to undertake permanent changes in the occupied area, unless these are due to military needs in the narrow sense of the term, or unless they are undertaken for the benefit of the local population,” added the center.

K.F./T.R.