Al-Jazeera / June 22, 2023
A new Jewish settler outpost appeared just days after Netanyahu ordered construction of 1,000 new homes in illegal settlement.
Settlers, with the support of the Israeli army, have set up a new illegal outpost on private Palestinian land near the village of Lubban al-Sharqiya on the highway between Ramallah and Nablus.
The outpost is located between Lubban al-Sharqiya and Sinjil, close to where Tuesday’s shooting of four Jewish settlers took place near the illegal settlement of Eli in the occupied West Bank.
The settlers were killed by two Palestinian gunmen a day after five Palestinians were killed – including one child, Ahmed Saqr – in the Jenin refugee camp during a large-scale Israeli military incursion which left at least 91 people wounded during the nine-hour raid. A second child, Sadeel Naghnaghiyeh, succumbed to her wounds on Wednesday morning.
New outpost close to village settlers attacked recently
Settlers set up six mobile homes Thursday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
A WAFA correspondent said Israeli army bulldozers levelled land in the area to prepare it for the establishment of the settlement outpost.
Lubban al-Sharqiya was one of the villages targeted in attacks by settlers on Wednesday night following the shooting near Eli.
In the attacks, at least three people were hospitalized with injuries sustained from live ammunition, while 45 people required treatment after being hit with rubber-coated bullets.
One child, Ismail Owais, was reported to have been beaten on the head and back by settlers.
Israel issued approval for 1,000 new homes in an illegal Jewish settlement
The latest move comes after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the building of 1,000 new homes in the illegal settlement of Eli as a response to the attack that had killed four settlers.
Netanyahu and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich “agreed to move ahead immediately” with the planning, a statement by the prime minister’s office said, without giving further details on the timetable.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to immediately “cease all settlement activities” in occupied Palestinian territory on Tuesday, describing Israel’s plans to advance the building of Israeli settlements as driving “tensions and violence” and being a major obstacle to lasting peace.
SOURCE: AL-JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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Jewish settlers set up new outpost in Nablus
Middle East Monitor / June 22, 2023
Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli occupation forces this morning set up six mobile homes on privately owned Palestinian land in the village of Al-Laban al-Sharqiya in the Nablus governorate, as a first step to taking it over.
Israeli bulldozers escorted by occupation forces stormed the area, owned by Mousa al-Abd Aweis, Abdel-Rahim Noubani and Ahmad Mahmoud Aweis and levelled the land to prepare it for the establishment of the settlement outpost, reported a WAFA correspondent.
According to Mondoweiss, the settlers operate by descending en-masse on different sites, where they then set up tents and mobile caravans before declaring them new settlements.
The outpost was set up by the Israeli government as a punitive measure against the Palestinian neighbours who allegedly shot and killed four Israeli settlers on Tuesday at a petrol station adjacent to the illegal settlement of Eli, between Ramallah and Nablus.
It comes after the latest report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) which called out Israel for its punitive measures against the relatives of those accused of resistance attacks.
“Punitive demolitions are a form of collective punishment and are illegal under international law, because they target the families of the perpetrators of the attacks or the alleged attacks,” explained OCHA.
Under international law, both the West Bank and East Jerusalem are occupied territories. All settlement building is, therefore, illegal.
Nablus is surrounded by more than 40 Jewish settlements and outposts with Jewish settlers continuing to encroach on Palestinian land to expand these illegal settlements and outposts under the protection of occupation forces.
