Middle East Monitor / February 7, 2022
Israeli bulldozers, today, levelled and dug swaths of agricultural land in the Palestinian village of Kisan, east of the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, in preparation to expand a nearby illegal Jewish settlement, reported Wafa news agency.
Kisan, a village cut off from other neighbouring Palestinian villages, is inhabited by 800 people and is surrounded by the two illegal Jewish settlements of Ma’ale Amos and Avi Menahem.
Its area is about 133,278 dunams (133 square kilometres). Israeli settlers expropriated 2,201 dunams (2.2 square kilometres).
Ahmad Ghazal, a local activist, told Wafa that the bulldozers levelled about 30 dunams of land in order to expand a nearby settlement.
He added that this is not the first time village land and residents have come under attack from Israeli settlers and soldiers.
The small Palestinian village of Kisan has faced intensified Israeli land theft and settler attacks in recent months.
The village does not have transportation, electricity or water networks. It does not have a clinic, either.
Like hundreds of other Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, Kisan is located in ‘Area C’ under the Oslo Accords, putting it under full Israeli military and administrative control.
