BETHLEHEM, August 4, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli bulldozers Saturday razed lands between two illegal settlements to the south of the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank in preparation to expand the settlements, according to Hasan Breijieh, a local activist.

He told WAFA Israeli bulldozers razed lands belonging to residents from the village of Artas in order to implement an Israeli governmental plan to build 1700 new settlement units in the next five years.

Israel has recently been escalating its takeover of Palestinian lands near the Etzion settlement bloc, south of Bethlehem, which varied from uprooting trees to preventing Palestinian urban expansion in area villages.

K.T./M.K.