HEBRON, June 20, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers set up on Wednesday a new settlement outpost on Palestinian land in the town of Bani Naim, east of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, according to a local official.

Younis Arar, who heads a Palestinian Authority department in the town in charge of monitoring Israeli settlements and wall activity, said settlers put up a tent, a caravan and an animal barn on a 20-dunum plot of land in Bani Naim that belongs to the Ideis family.

He said the measure is a prelude to take over the land and annex it to the nearby illegal settlement of Beni Heifer, also built on expropriated Bani Naim land.

He said that the Israeli government has given the green light to expropriate this land and the army has recently declared it a closed military zone in preparation to take it over to expand the area of Beni Heifer settlement.

Arar said his office is going to set up a tent on this land to ascertain its Palestinian ownership and is going to international courts to put a stop to Israeli expropriation of Palestinian land for its settlement activity.

M.K.