BETHLEHEM, Monday, January 28, 2019 (WAFA) – Jewish settlers Monday seized private Palestinian land near Beit Iskaria, a Palestinian village surrounded by a number of illegal Israeli settlements that form the so-called Gush Etzion bloc to the south of the biblical city of Bethlehem in the south of the occupied West Bank, according to a local source.

Mohammad Ibrahim, head of the Beit Iskaria village council, told WAFA that villagers were shocked to find out that the settlers have seized large plots of land that belong to the Odeh family in an area of the village located near the illegal settlement of Netivot.

He said the settlers grabbed 40 dunums (10 acres) of the land and planted part of it with trees in a step to assert their control over it.

Ibrahim said the landowners have legal titles to the land proving ownership and are therefore going to contest the takeover in courts.

K.T./M.K.