QALQILYA, Wednesday, November 21, 2018 (WAFA) – The First Instance Court in Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank Wednesday sentenced two Palestinians to 15 years in prison with hard labor after convicting them of selling Palestinian land to Israelis.

The two, from the village of Kufr Thuluth, were part of a ring of land dealers involved in attempting to sell lands in Jerusalem, Qalqilya, Nablus, Tulkarm and inside Israel as well to Israelis in a deal that was supposed to have taken place last January.

The Palestinian Preventive Security said on its website on Monday that its units were able to arrest four people, one of them a lawyer, suspected of plotting to sell land to Israeli parties. While the Israeli parties were not identified, they were assumed to be settlers.

It said one of the people involved who was hiding in Israel and another a land dealer from inside Israel have conspired with the rest of the ring members to sell land worth over $10 million to Israelis.

Palestinian law bans sale of land in the West Bank and Gaza to non-residents of Palestine without a prior approval from the Council of Ministers.

K.T./M.K.